Brendan Shanahan Reportedly Shot Down A Brandon Hagel & Marc-Andre Fleury Trade

With Brendan Shanahan potentially on his way out of the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise, there has been a lot of discussion about his past mistakes with the team.

On The Steve Dangle Podcast, host Adam Wylde brought up a wild trade that was shot down years ago.

This would have been a controversial trade, especially knowing just how good Matthew Knies turned out to be. However, at the time, this would have made the Leafs a much better team.

According to Wylde, Kyle Dubas was about to trade Matthew Knies, Petr Mrazek, and two first-round picks to the Chicago Blackhawks for Brandon Hagel and Marc-Andre Fleury.

However, Shanahan decided to throw the trade in the garbage and foiled Dubas' plans. Not only did the Leafs miss out on a great goaltender in Fleury, but they lost out on a guy who now gets minutes with Team Canada.

Looking back, getting rid of Knies and Easton Cowan would have been a hard pill to swallow. However, no one knew what Knies would become at the time.

Furthermore, Easton Cowan is still unproven and has yet to play a game for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hopefully, that changes next season.

Either way, this just shows that Brendan Shanahan has made some questionable decisions over the years.

Only time will tell whether or not MLSE decides to let him go, once and for all, or bring him back and say yes to the status quo.