The Maple Leafs’ Free Agent Defense Search: The 20+ Minute Studs and Intriguing Second-Pair Options

Chris Tanev, Maple Leafs FA TargetIt is no secret that Brad Treliving’s top priority for the upcoming offseason is building up Toronto’s defense.

That information has been repeated in countless insider reports and explicitly acknowledged by Treliving himself in his pre-draft media availability:

We have some cap space, but you look at the holes we have to fill, and it goes quickly. We are trying to be as prudent as we can to look at the defense… I wouldn’t say, “Look at it first,” but look at it first before we commit too many cap dollars anywhere else.

Toronto’s defense group has to go up a notch for the team to move past the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference, and they have pressing…