Maple Leafs add Joel Edmundson from Capitals, bring beef to blue line

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Joel Edmundson doesn’t shoot right.

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The 6-foot-5, 221-pound defenceman does play with a physical edge, though, and will bring that element to the Maple Leafs blue line.

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A week after getting brawny defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin from the Anaheim Ducks, Leafs general manager Brad Treliving beefed up the defence corps again, acquiring Edmundson from the Washington Capitals on Thursday morning.

The Leafs sent two draft picks — a 2024 third-rounder (previously owned by the New York Islanders) and a 2025 fifth-rounder (previously owned by the Chicago Blackhawks) — to the Capitals. 

Washington is retaining 50% of Edmundson’s salary, which carries a cap hit of $1.75 million US, so the Leafs got that cut to $875,000. The 30-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

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Edmundson has played in 521 regular-season games with St. Louis, Carolina, Montreal and Washington.

More importantly, the native of Brandon, Man., has 75 Stanley Cup playoff games on his resume, and was part of the 2019 Blues team that won the Cup.

Edmundson will be reunited with Morgan Rielly as teammates. They played three seasons together, from 2010-13, with Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League.

Treliving sought to add two defencemen before the National Hockey League trade deadline on Friday at 3 p.m., and has got that done. Now, it remains to be seen whether he can trade for a depth forward, as is his wish, before the deadline hits.

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