The Toronto Maple Leafs traded forward James Van Riemsdyk and a draft pick in exchange for prospect Jeremy Bracco and 2 draft picks.

"I'd like to thank JVR for his time with the Leafs and wish him well moving forward," said GM Garrett Hansford.  "After our poor start we needed to look at our future.  We have mortaged some of our future in past years, and now we're focused on re-stocking our prospects and picks."

Headed to Toronto is Kitchener Ranger forward Jeremy Bracco.  Bracco has gotten off to a great start in the Ontario Hockey League with 51 points in 27 games.   He's expected to be a center piece of Team USA's entry in the 2017 World Junior Championship.

"We've been interested in Jeremy for sometime," said Hansford.  "We feel he upgrades our prospect base immensely and will be a big part of the Maple Leafs in the coming years."

Toronto has been rumored to be in trade discussions for several weeks but it was believed one of the team's pending free agents would be moved first. The team is off to its worst start in years and sit in 12th in the Eastern conference, 8 points out of the playoffs.  Pending free agents Mikko Koivu, Patrick Sharp, Dominic Moore and Dan Girardi are all key players who could find a new home in the coming weeks.  

Toronto is now comfortably under the salary cap and has flexibility to retain salaries in deals moving forward.