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Well, folks, it’s the Leafs’ transaction that you have all been anxiously waiting for.

The Leafs have dealt 23-year-old unsigned prospect Dakota Joshua to the St. Louis Blues for future considerations. 

The Leafs selected the 6’2, 198lbs pivot in the 5th round of the 2014 NHL draft. He has played for Ohio State University in the NCAA for the last four seasons, notching a total of 41 goals and 100 points in 128 games. His best season statistically was in the 2016/17 season, when he scored 35 points in 33 games, but his numbers have regressed in each of the last two seasons.

Joshua is known to be a good two-way centre with size, but his offensive game just has not reached the level that it needs to. The Leafs had until August 15th of this summer to sign Joshua to an entry-level deal to avoid losing his NHL rights, but it seems that they did not have any plans on doing so. 

The Leafs continue their trend of trading a prospect that they did not need to keep around for *something* just before their rights expire. They have done so with Nolan Vesey and Fedor Gordeev since Kyle Dubas took over as General Manager, which is an example of good asset management. 

Joshua has also signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Blues:

We don’t have any indication on what exactly the “future considerations” of this trade are.

Overall, this is about as minor of a trade as you can get, but if you want to take anything from it it’s a small example of asset management from a team that tends to manage their assets quite well.