Former Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau weighed in on the Maple Leafs’ acquisition of forward Dakota Joshua from the Canucks. Toronto sent a 2028 fourth-round pick to Vancouver in exchange for Joshua, who has three years remaining on his deal with a $3.25 million cap hit.

When asked about the trade on the First Up podcast, Boudreau praised the move by the Leafs.

“He’s actually a pretty good player. I think this is a great move by the Leafs,” Boudreau said. “He’s physical, he’s got a scoring touch … Two years ago he got 18 goals, and I think that was more that he was just sort of coming out of his shell.”

Boudreau coached Joshua during part of the 2022–23 season in Vancouver. He recalled that the team initially brought him in an enforcer-type role. But Joshua quickly exceeded those expectations, bringing offensive upside along with his physical game.

“Then he got 18, then he got sick last year, and so I think it really derailed his progress, and then he came on again at the last half of the year,” Boudreau said.

“But I think, you know what, the other thing is he’s a good penalty killer. He’s got good hands, which was surprising to me that he killed penalties so well.”

Boudreau believes Joshua can provide the Leafs with a solid physical presence on their third line alongside Nicolas Roy. He noted that the Leafs now have a third line that could be physical, tough to play against and finally give them the edge they’ve been looking for over the past few years.

Dakota Joshua missed time at the beginning of last season, recovering from surgery related to testicular cancer. He returned and contributed seven goals and 14 points over 57 games.

Bryan Hayes on “interesting” Canucks trading Dakota Joshua to Maple Leafs

TSN hockey analyst Bryan Hayes, speaking on FanDuel Overdrive, raised doubts about the Canucks’ decision to trade forward Dakota Joshua to the Maple Leafs.

Hayes noted that despite being a bottom-six player, Joshua has desirable attributes, including size, versatility to play center or wing.

“It’s interesting,” Hayes said (3:36). “I can’t quite figure it out from Vancouver’s standpoint … Maybe it’s a cap dump. That’s what I would guess. They have something else cooking. Maybe they’re in on someone else or they have a couple of other things coming and they had to unload somebody.”

Hayes theorized that Vancouver may have made the move to clear cap space and roster flexibility for another transaction down the road.