Leafs Re-Sign Peter Holland

The Maple Leafs and center Peter Holland have agreed on a one year, $1.3MM contract according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.  As a result, the sides avoid salary arbitration.  In their arbitration filings on Saturday, Toronto had submitted a one year offer for $900K while Holland had countered with $2.1MM.

In what looked to be a move to boost their leverage with the arbitrator, the Leafs ran Holland through waivers with him clearing on Saturday.  It’s safe to suggest the move helped as the settlement comes in a couple hundred thousand shy of the filing midpoints.

Last season, Holland posted a career high in points with 27 (nine goals and 18 assists, the latter also being a career best).  He logged 14:40 of ice time per game, primarily in a third line role.

The former first round pick of the Ducks (15th overall in 2009), the 25 year old Holland has played in 195 career NHL games between Toronto in Anaheim.  He has 30 goals and 39 assists in those contests.

It’s likely that Holland will once again be battling for bottom six ice time in 2016-17 and he may have to shift to the wing as he currently sits behind incumbents Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak as well as top pick Auston Matthews on the depth chart.

With the contract, Toronto has a pair of remaining restricted free agents to re-sign in blueliners Frank Corrado and Martin Marincin.  The team has roughly $1.7MM in remaining cap space according to Cap Friendly but their actual amount of space in-season should be considerably higher with the health issues for both Nathan Horton and Jared Cowen.