Maple Leafs scratch three fan-favourite players for trade related reasons

The trade deadline is coming up on Friday, and it looks more and more like the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be active. But for the first time in years, they're going to be sellers instead of buyers.

They're most likely missing the playoffs, and now it looks like multiple players will be traded. The Maple Leafs are scratching Bobby McMann, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Scott Laughton before tonight's game against the Devils.

When an otherwise healthy player is made a healthy scratch before the deadline, it means that they're likely being withheld from the ice to avoid injury to make sure that a trade can happen.

The trade deadline this year is March 6, and all three of those players could soon be wearing different sweaters by the weekend.

Both Laughton and McMann is a UFAs after this year, while Ekman-Larsson still has two years left on his contract.

What Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving does over the next two days will go a long way in determining his legacy as GM of the team that he took over from Kyle Dubas.

Not only have the Maple Leafs won only a single playoff series since he arrived, but they've also traded a fan favourite in Mitch Marner.

Before the season began, Treliving talked about needing to change the "DNA" of the team, and he did so in a huge way with the Marner move.

Now, it looks like there will be even more of a DNA change regarding the Maple Leafs roster by Friday.

Also read on House Of Hockey :
St. Louis Blues trade Olympian Colton Parayko to eastern conference team