Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman has put his fingerprints all over the hockey club, making plenty of trades and signings since taking over at the helm a little over 18 months ago.
The early returns on many of his moves are a mixed bag, there are a few moves that look like hits and a few that are definitely big whiffs. One such whiff was his marquee free agent signing this past summer, inking veteran forward Andrew Mangiapane to a two-year contract.
Mangiapane represented a buy low player who had once been highly regarded as an effective second line scorer with the Oilers provincial rivals, the Calgary Flames. After being sent to the Washington Capitals during the 2024-25 season, he had seen his production fall as he failed to secure a spot higher in the Capitals' lineup.
He has had similar issues with the Oilers, failing to win a spot with their top-six alongside either Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. This has caused the Oilers to quite openly be shopping the winger, just a few months into his tenure with Edmonton. He even appeared on Sportsnet NHL insider Nick Kypreos' latest trade board.
It was in this article that Kypreos mentioned that there was a potential trade involving Mangiapane that was declined by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Oilers attempted to trade Andrew Mangiapane, according to NHL insider
Kypreos released the 4.0 version of his trade board this week, including Oilers winger Andrew Mangiapane on the list. This indicates that he is likely to be traded by the March 6th trade deadline.
According to Kypreos the Oilers wanted to send Mangiapane to the Maple Leafs for their own struggling winger, Matias Maccelli but of course the trade did not work out. Saying "The Oilers were prepared to send Mangiapane to Toronto for Matias Maccelli, but the feeling is the Leafs weren't too interested in it."
There is no other known details about the trade, whether picks or prospects were involved or if there was retention or anything.
Either way, it is understandable that Brad Treliving and the Leafs would be unwilling to make the move, for various reasons. Maccelli, despite struggling early on has seemingly found his groove with the Leafs, scoring 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) in 46 games while Mangiapane continues to struggle having scored just 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 49 games.
Also, he is younger than Mangiapane, having turned 25 earlier this season and the latter turning 30 in April. This means that Maccelli is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of this season, still under team control where Mangiapane is signed for another season and will be an unrestricted free agent. Speaking of contracts, Maccelli makes slightly less at $3.425 million annual average value compared to Mangiapane's $3.6 million AAV (puckpedia.com).