Trevor Moore Trade Talk: The Ex-Leaf Jim Hiller Knows Best

A Trevor Moore trade would be the neatest story of Toronto's summer

A Trevor Moore trade is suddenly a live topic in Los Angeles, and the Toronto angle writes itself. The Hockey News named Moore and goaltender Darcy Kuemper as the two Kings veterans worth watching between now and training camp — with the important caveat that there is no public indication either player is actively being shopped. Moore is a former Maple Leaf. Jim Hiller, Toronto's new head coach, spent parts of three seasons coaching him in Los Angeles. On paper, that is a reunion with a bow on it.

It is also a move the Maple Leafs almost certainly cannot make, and the reasons why say more about Toronto's actual position than the fantasy does.

Who Trevor Moore is now

Moore is 31, a left-shot winger, and signed through the end of the 2027-28 season on a five-year, $21-million contract carrying a $4.2-million cap hit. Two years remain.

Last season he put up 13 goals and 19 assists for 32 points in 69 games, adding a goal and an assist in four playoff games before the Kings were eliminated. That is a step back from his best years. He missed time midway through the season and never fully recovered his production, though Kings coverage noted he was at his sharpest down the stretch and into the playoffs.

The profile has not changed: relentless forechecker, genuinely fast, kills penalties, drives play on a third line and can survive on a second. He is a California native who grew up a Kings fan, which is not a small factor in whether he would welcome a move anywhere at all.

The trade that sent him away is Leafs history

Toronto traded Moore on Feb. 5, 2020, in the deal that brought Jack Campbell and Kyle Clifford to the Maple Leafs. Los Angeles received Moore, a 2020 third-round pick and a conditional 2021 third-rounder.

The trade was defensible at the time. Frederik Andersen was hurt, Michael Hutchinson was struggling, and Toronto needed a goaltender who could actually stop pucks. Campbell was that for a while. But Moore has been a useful NHL forward for six seasons since, and Los Angeles used the 2020 third-round pick to draft Alex Laferriere. It is not a trade Toronto looks back on fondly.

That history is why the idea has legs with fans, and it is also a reason to be careful. "We should undo an old mistake" is not a roster-construction argument. It is nostalgia with a cap hit attached.

Why the fit is real on the ice

Set the sentiment aside and the hockey fit is genuinely good.

Hiller coached Moore directly, posting a 93-58-24 record over parts of three seasons in Los Angeles before being fired on March 1. A new head coach installing a system benefits enormously from having one player in the room who already knows what he wants and can demonstrate it. Toronto has almost nobody in that category.

Moore's specific skills also match Toronto's specific gaps. The Maple Leafs' penalty kill has been a recurring problem, and Chayka spent the summer addressing it by committee — Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger and Jack Roslovic on short-term deals rather than one significant addition. Moore is a better penalty killer than any of them and a better even-strength driver than most.

He would slot on a third line, kill penalties, and give Hiller a trustworthy option on nights when the top six is not scoring. That is the exact profile Toronto has been chasing since June.

Why Toronto cannot do it

Here is where it falls apart, and it falls apart completely.

Toronto is roughly $2.75 million over the salary cap right now, one of two teams above the ceiling. Max Domi's long-term injured reserve relief solves that, but LTIR relief is not cap space in any useful sense — it lets you be non-compliant, it does not let you go shopping. Adding a $4.2-million cap hit means sending out close to $4.2 million in salary first.

What would Toronto send? The candidates are Dakota Joshua and Steven Lorentz, both of whom Chayka has reportedly been willing to discuss. But moving Joshua to clear space and then immediately spending that space on Moore is a lateral trade that costs assets. You have not improved; you have reshuffled and paid a tax.

The roster spot is the other problem. Toronto's forward group is full. Sissons, Blueger, Roslovic, Nick Paul and Zack MacEwen are all signed and all expect to play. Gavin McKenna is going to be given every opportunity to make the team. There is no obvious opening for a 31-year-old winger at $4.2 million, and creating one means subtracting a player Chayka just deliberately acquired.

What Los Angeles would even want

Assume for a moment the cap problem vanished. There is still a second obstacle: Toronto does not have the currency Los Angeles would ask for.

The Kings are not a rebuilding team looking for futures. They made the playoffs and were swept in the first round, and a club in that position moving a useful 31-year-old winger wants either salary relief or a roster player who helps immediately. Toronto's meaningful trade chips are high draft capital, Easton Cowan, and a small group of prospects the organization has spent two years insisting it will not move.

Trading a first-round pick for a 31-year-old third-liner on a team that finished last in its division would be indefensible. Trading Cowan for him would be worse. And Toronto's mid-tier prospect depth — the group we wrote about last week — is not the kind of package that headlines a deal for a productive NHL forward.

That leaves salary-for-salary, which brings you straight back to Joshua and Lorentz, and straight back to the question of whether swapping one bottom-six contract for a more expensive bottom-six contract is progress. It is not.

The verdict

This is a good idea Toronto cannot afford, which describes roughly half of the Maple Leafs' offseason.

If Moore were a year from unrestricted free agency at $2 million, this would be an easy call. At $4.2 million with two years left, on a roster with no expiring contracts and no flexibility, it is a move that requires two other moves to enable it. That is how you talk yourself into a bad summer.

The realistic version of this story is different and less romantic: Moore becomes available in February, Los Angeles retains salary to move him, and Toronto — if it is in a playoff race and healthy — becomes one of several plausible destinations. That is a deadline conversation, not an August one.

What's next

Watch Los Angeles first. The Kings' situation clarifies when camp opens on the second week of September and their forward group sorts itself out. If Moore is on a fourth line in October, the trade talk becomes real. If he is playing top-six minutes and producing, it disappears.

Watch Toronto's cap second. Chayka has said openly that he expects to make another move before camp, and the Joshua and Lorentz files are the ones to track. Whatever space that creates will almost certainly be spent on defence or kept in reserve, not on a winger — Toronto's top four remains the unfinished part of this roster.

The Moore reunion is a fun thought and a real fit for a coach who needs allies. It is not going to happen in August, and pretending otherwise ignores the arithmetic. You can check the full cap picture yourself on our contracts page.