Maple Leafs recoup 2023 1st-round pick and acquire defencemen Schenn, Gustafsson | CBC Sports

The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to wheel and deal before Friday’s NHL trade deadline.

The club shipped Rasmus Sandin to the Washington Capitals for fellow defenceman Erik Gustafsson and a 2023 first-round draft pick on Tuesday before dealing forward Pierre Engvall to the New York Islanders for a third-rounder in 2024.

Toronto then acquired rearguard Luke Schenn from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a third round selection in this summer’s draft.

Sandin, the 29th overall selection in 2018, has four goals and 20 points in 52 games this season.

The 22-year-old registered 10 goals and 48 points in 140 regular-season appearances with the Leafs. He scored once in five playoff contests.

Gustafsson has seven goals and 38 points in 61 games so far in 2022-23.

In 370 career games with Chicago, Calgary, Philadelphia, Montreal and Washington, the 30-year-old has put up 39 goals and 187 points. He’s added eight points (one goal, seven assists) in 31 playoff contests.

The pick coming to the Leafs in Tuesday’s deal was acquired by Washington from Boston in last week’s trade that saw the Bruins get defenceman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway from the Capitals.

Toronto included its 2023 first-rounder in the recent deal that brought forwards Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari from St. Louis in a three-team trade with Minnesota.

Schenn, 33, began his career with the Maple Leafs after they drafted the Saskatoon native fifth overall in 2008. Following four seasons in Toronto, Schenn suited up with Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Arizona, Anaheim, Tampa Bay and Vancouver.

The stay-at-home blue liner has recorded 41 goals and 190 points in 918 NHL regular-season games while adding six points in 31 playoff games.

During his tenure with Tampa Bay, Schenn helped the Lightning capture back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Schenn and Gustafsson, who was originally drafted by Edmonton in the fourth round in 2012, join a Toronto roster significantly reworked by general manager Kyle Dubas in recent weeks ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline. The club looks to advance in the post-season for the first time since 2004.

On Monday, Dubas added defenceman Jake McCabe and forward Sam Lafferty from Chicago.

Engvall has 12 goals and 21 points in 58 games this season. A seventh-round pick in 2014, the 26-year-old had 42 goals and 83 points in 226 games with Toronto. He added four assists in 17 post-season appearances.

Dubas has shed a number of high draft picks in recent years — including the deals with St. Louis and Chicago — but got one back in the swap for Gustafsson, who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent in July after earning $800,000 US in 2022-23.

Sandin is on the books for another season with a salary cap hit of $1.4 million before potentially hitting restricted free agency in the summer of 2024.

Oilers get rights to unsigned prospect

The Edmonton Oilers have dealt embattled right-winger Jesse Puljujarvi to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Carolina sent the rights to 22-year-old unsigned draft pick Patrik Puistola to Edmonton in the swap of young Finns.

Puljujarvi, 24, has four goals and 13 points in 58 games for Edmonton this season.

“Jesse possesses a great blend of size and skill, and he will add to the depth of our forward group,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said in a statement. “He has familiarity with some of our other Finnish players, and we see him as a great fit for our team and locker room.”

The move helps replace what Carolina expected out of Max Pacioretty before the veteran winger re-tore his right Achilles tendon last month.

Drafted fourth overall by the Oilers in 2016, the six-foot-four, 201-pound Puljujarvi has struggled at times, amassing 51 goals and 61 assists in 317 regular-season games.

He spent three seasons in Edmonton before returning to his native Finland to play parts of two seasons in the Finnish Elite League. Puljujarvi returned to the Oilers in October 2020 and signed a one-year contract worth $3 million US in July.

The 22-year-old Puistola has yet to make his NHL debut after being selected by Carolina in the third round of the 2019 draft. The six-foot, 175-pound forward from Tampere, Finland has 15 goals and 38 points in Finland’s Liiga this season

Puljujarvi’s departure frees up cap space for the Oilers (32-21-8), who are looking to improve their defence, GM Ken Holland said.

“There’s a few players out there that we think would fit,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Today, I’m hoping, was step one. We’ve got to move money. I hope there’s other steps to come.”

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Holland said he spoke with Puljujarvi and his agent a couple of weeks ago and pitched them on having the Finn return to Edmonton on a one or two-year deal with an average annual value of about $1 million. Puljujarvi said he wanted “a fresh start instead,” the GM said.

“He went back to Finland, he’s worked hard at his English, I think he’s got more physical,” added Holland. “I think in the time that I’ve been here and the coaching staff, I think we’ve tried to be as patient with him, given him as much opportunity as we possibly could.”

Puljujarvi, 24, joins countrymen Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Antti Raanta with the Hurricanes. He played on a line with Aho for Finland at the 2016 world junior championship and led the tournament with 17 points in seven games.

Carolina leads the Metropolitan Division and trails only the league-leading Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference and league standings. Before leaving for a two-game Western Conference road trip, head coach Rod Brind’Amour said the upcoming trade deadline was not a distraction for his team.

More moves coming?

“I think we’re pretty set on our group — I don’t think we’re moving people out,” Brind’Amour told reporters in Raleigh, N.C. “We’ll see. The good news is what is it three, four days away and then it’ll be over. We can all move on after that.”

Trading Puljujarvi and not retaining any of his salary allows Edmonton to clear his $3 million off the books in preparation to make more moves. The Oilers, who are giving up more than three goals a game, are on the lookout for help on defence.

Vladislav Gavrikov from Columbus, Jakob Chychrun from Arizona and Mattias Ekholm from Nashville are all potential options. Gavrikov and Chychrun have each been held out of game action for weeks to avoid the risk of injury.

Any team acquiring a player already out with injury will have to be especially careful after the league sent a memo Tuesday to all 32 front offices warning them about increased scrutiny in that department. The league will be watching teams that acquire anyone on long-term injured reserve and waits until the start of the playoffs to activate those players, when the cap is no longer in effect.

Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay in 2021 and Chicago in 2015 famously used the LTIR loophole with Nikita Kucherov and Patrick Kane, respectively, to use up space while they were out before plugging them into the lineup for Game 1 of the first round.

Wild add Johansson

The Minnesota Wild acquired forward Marcus Johansson from the Washington Capitals in exchange for a third-round pick in 2024.

Johansson, 32, has recorded 28 points (13 goals, 15 assists) in 60 games this season. The pending unrestricted free agent was traded to Washington prior to last year’s deadline by the Seattle Kraken.

Johansson will be embarking on his second stint with the Wild. He had 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in 36 games with the club during the 2020-21 season.

Johansson has amassed 157 goals and 435 points in 813 career games with the Capitals, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Wild and Kraken. He was selected 24th overall by Washington in 2009.