Toronto Maple Leafs acquire rights to Chris Tanev from Dallas Stars

Just as the 2024 NHL Entry Draft was coming to an end with the 225th and final pick, the Toronto Maple Leafs made a huge move, trading for the rights to Dallas Stars defenseman Chris Tanev. 

The Stars traded Tanev’s rights to the Leafs for forward Max Ellis and a 2026 seventh-round draft pick. Tanev is still not under contract past this season and would become a pending unrestricted free agent on July 1 if a deal cannot get done. 

He is a Toronto, Ontario native.

“We talked since the end of the year about trying to help ourselves on defense,” Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said Saturday at the draft. “As we got closer and it looked like potentially he’s not going to be signing in Dallas, we wanted to jump the queue here as best we could and get to him before free agency started. So that’s what we’re going to do. I know the player well, we’ll get to work on it now, at least excited to have an opportunity to speak directly with him and see if we can put something together.”

Tanev was likely the hottest commodity around the NHL since the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 34-year-old defenseman was acquired by Dallas at the 2024 trade deadline from the Calgary Flames in exchange for Artem Grushnikov, a  2024 second-round pick and a conditional 2026 third-round pick. 

Once he got to Dallas, he fit in perfectly and made the Stars one of the top Stanley Cup contenders. In 19 regular-season games with Dallas, Tanev recorded five points (one goal, four assists) and a plus-6 rating. He excelled on the Stars’ penalty kill and finished the season third in the NHL with 207 total blocked shots. 

That theme continued into the playoffs, as Tanev played in all 19 Stars playoff games during their run to the Western Conference Final. Tanev recorded two assists but racked up 73 blocks and 30 hits while playing over 22 minutes per game. He also once again showed his toughness, playing through a foot/ankle injury in the postseason. 

Tanev has played 792 career regular-season games between the Vancouver Canucks, Flames and Stars. After going undrafted out of the Rochester Institute of Technology (NCAA) and being signed by Vancouver, he spent his first 10 seasons with the Canucks. He signed with Calgary in 2020 and played the next three (plus 56 games) seasons with the Flames before being traded to Dallas in 2024. 

Ellis, 24, has yet to make his NHL debut, playing the past two seasons with the Toronto Marlies in the American Hockey League. He has 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists) in 87 career AHL games. Ellis played two seasons of college hockey at the University of Notre Dame.