Maple Leafs still in line to trade for Connor McDavid

They're the rumors that will always be the loudest when it comes to a Connor McDavid trade, regardless of the chances of such a move happening.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, McDavid's childhood favorite team, would be the NHL's dream destination for McDavid if the Edmonton Oilers chose to move him.

And with the Oilers' 2025-26 season ended in the first round of the playoffs, it's a topic that has come up again.

McDavid has two years remaining on his current contract. If Edmonton wanted to maximize his value in a trade, it would either trade McDavid this summer or before next season's trade deadline.

That's not guaranteed to happen, but if the trade winds pick up, the Maple Leafs will be swirling.

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Bleacher Report's Lyle Fitzsimmons, in a new article on Friday, named the Leafs as one possible landing spot for McDavid.

"Call this one a hometown decision," Fitzsimmons writes. "McDavid grew up less than an hour north of Toronto, has described his childhood bedroom as a shrine to the Maple Leafs, and said a few months prior to the 2015 draft that it'd be 'a dream come true' to play for his hometown team. And sheesh...how happy would it make Bettman and a hockey-mad city to have the game's best player slide in alongside the likes of Auston Matthews?"

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The Maple Leafs already have the huge contracts of Matthews and William Nylander on the book, so the money wouldn't be simple here.

But where there's a will, there's a way. And it sure seems like there'd be a will to get McDavid to Toronto if he ends up on the trade market.

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