While the expansion draft is set to headline a busy NHL offseason, there are still several other storylines for each team in the months ahead. Here is a closer look at what lies ahead for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Most teams that are eliminated in the first round would say their season was a disappointment. Although that was the end result for the Maple Leafs, there is plenty of optimism for next year and beyond as their core nucleus of youngsters made a very positive impression this season. The timetable has moved forward somewhat and GM Lou Lamoriello will be looking to add pieces to help the team take the next step. Here are some of Toronto’s keys for the summer.
Free Up More Summer Cap Space
While the likes of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander are all still on cheap rookie contracts, the majority of bonuses that they hit this past season will carry over and count against the cap in 2017-18. The early indication is that their overage charge will be a little more than $5MM.
On top of that, they will also have to deal with their long-term injured players coming back onto the cap for the summer. While Joffrey Lupul and Nathan Horton were on LTIR last year, that doesn’t exist in the summer and teams are limited to exceeding the salary cap by no more than 10% throughout the offseason.
Between their committed contracts and expected bonus overage, Toronto already has $67MM committed to 19 players for next season with the salary cap not expected to change much from the $73MM it was last season. (Note that Horton and Lupul are included in that calculation.) If the Leafs want to re-sign their free agents and make a splash on the open market, it’s going to be a tighter squeeze in July than it might appear at first glance. They’ll be in fine shape when next season gets underway and LTIR becomes an option once again but if Lamoriello can shed some money before July, they’ll be in much better shape for free agency.
Add Defensive Help
Scoring goals wasn’t an issue for the Leafs this year and it’s not likely to be much of one for the foreseeable future. Despite improved goalie play from Frederik Andersen this season, keeping pucks out of their own net was still a concern and projects to be one moving forward as well.
With Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner, and Nikita Zaitsev, Toronto has a group of quality players to work with but none of them are a true shut-down defender. Finding one of those players that can handle a top four role would go a long way towards rounding out their back end. However, the free agent market is limited so the trade route may wind up being the way to go.
They also face a decision when it comes to their third pairing as both Matt Hunwick and Roman Polak are unrestricted free agents and aren’t likely to return. Are they content with the likes of Alexey Marchenko and Martin Marincin (plus their prospects) to manage the bottom three spots on the depth chart or will they try to seek upgrades there as well? If it’s the latter, they should be able to get that help via the free agent market.
Extension Decisions
A pair of key forwards are set to enter their walk years in Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk (plus Leo Komarov as well). Knowing that their ‘big three’ up front will be needing second contracts before too long (Nylander is now a year from restricted free agency), Lamoriello will need to decide whether he can afford to keep one or both of them long-term and whether the time is right to potentially pursue an extension.
Both players will likely be getting raises on their next deals. Bozak has a cap hit of $4.2MM while van Riemsdyk checks in at $4.25MM, solid value for players that recorded 55 and 62 points respectively this past season.
If Lamoriello decides not to try to keep them around, the next decision will be whether or not to trade them with the idea of getting something now instead of potentially losing them for nothing later. Going that route would have been easier had Toronto not made the playoffs and potentially accelerated the timetable this year. As the Leafs are now viewed as a playoff threat, it would be hard for them to take a step back by dealing one or both of the veterans without getting comparable talent in return. Even if they can’t agree on extension terms this summer, it’s hard to imagine both players not being back at least to start next season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.