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The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Monday that they had acquired defenseman Jake McCabe, forward Sam Lafferty, a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024, and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2025 from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a conditional 2025 first-round pick, a conditional 2026 second-round pick, Joey Anderson, and Pavel Gogolev.
The Maple Leafs' cornerstone in this transaction is McCabe, who provides the team with a much-needed left-shot defenseman who can chew up minutes, particularly against bottom-six units. Chicago will keep half of McCabe's $4 million pay for this season and the following two seasons, meaning Toronto will keep him at $2 million until 2024-25. He has two goals and 20 points in 55 games with the Blackhawks, averaging 19:30 minutes per game.
McCabe will most likely play on the left side, although he can play on either side. We'll see how Sheldon Keefe deploys his lines, but McCabe might start the second pair alongside Timothy Liljegren as the Maple Leafs utilize the remaining 20 games of the season to test out their best combinations.
When McCabe was on the ice, Chicago controlled 46 percent of the projected goals at 5-on-5, but it was due to the club bottoming out. McCabe is leaving for a far more solid scenario in Toronto, where this edition of the Maple Leafs is championship or bust. We don't blame you if you don't want to read into graphs, but McCabe played some excellent hockey for a team that is clearly tanking.
There is no guarantee that Lafferty will see regular ice time, but Toronto has has plenty of depth in its bottom six and can try out a few different combinations during the March road trip. He's under contract until the 2023-24 season, with a cap hit of $1.15 million. Dubas like Lafferty's versatility and is pleased by his quickness.
"For me, the number one thing he contributes is speed, but he also adds adaptability," Dubas added. "He has the ability to play both center and wing. With his forechecking — his intensity and persistence on the forecheck — he is able to cause turnovers up the ice while remaining physically and aggressive.
Dubas has to go all-in to be competitive in the Eastern Conference, and he admitted that further moves might be made before Friday's trade deadline. If Toronto loses in the first round, it will be difficult to argue that the general manager did not work hard enough to bring in enough star players to compete for the franchise's first Cup since 1967.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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