Maple Leafs Sign Jason Spezza, Nick Shore
The Maple Leafs have signed a pair of centers, inking veteran Jason Spezza to a one-year deal worth the league minimum of $700K and Nick Shore to a one-year deal worth $750K according to James Mirtle of The Athletic.
The Toronto native has seen his offensive output drop considerably over the last couple of seasons. He had just eight goals last season (for the second straight year) with Dallas and averaged only 13:16 of playing time per game, hardly a great return on a $7.5MM AAV.
However, Spezza’s skills at the faceoff dot certainly haven’t eroded as he once again was well above the 50% mark, something that has been the case in every season. His 58.2% success rate last season was actually a career-high and would have ranked first among Toronto regulars down the middle.
It’s likely that he’ll be deployed in a bottom-six role with the Leafs as they look to reshape their group of depth forwards. While that doesn’t bode well for him turning things around offensively, he’ll give them a lot more stability than they’ve had from their depth centers in recent seasons. Spezza ranked 36th on our Top 50 UFA Rankings where we predicted a one-year deal to Toronto.
Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Nikita Zaitsev
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators have finalized a trade that will see Nikita Zaitsev and Cody Ceci swap teams. The Maple Leafs will send Zaitsev, Connor Brown and Michael Carcone to the Senators in exchange for Ceci, Ben Harpur, Aaron Luchuk and a 2020 third-round draft pick (originally from Columbus). The trade had to wait until today so that Toronto could pay out Zaitsev’s $3MM signing bonus, though technically that also meant he needed to waive the partial no-trade clause that has kicked in.
Zaitsev, 27, has five years left on his current contract and carries a $4.5MM cap hit, something the Maple Leafs needed to get out from under as they continue to work on an extension for restricted free agent Mitch Marner. The Russian defenseman signed a long-term deal with the club after an excellent rookie season in 2017 but saw his offensive numbers regress drastically as head coach Mike Babcock used him more and more in a shutdown role. That role never seemed like a perfect fit for the smooth-skating Zaitsev, who is used much more offensively at the international level with the Russian national team.
A capable penalty killer, he immediately becomes the Senators’ most expensive defenseman and reunites with former Maple Leafs assistant coach D.J. Smith who is now the boss in Ottawa. Zaitsev will likely be leaned on heavily for the Senators, who have plenty of inexperience on their blue line at the moment.
If not for this trade Ceci, 25, would have become the highest paid defender for the Senators as he was a year ago. Sitting currently as a restricted free agent he does have the option to file for salary arbitration but could also just elect to accept his $4.3MM qualifying offer. That may be the more prudent decision in this case, as heading to arbitration likely gives the Maple Leafs a chance to walk away from the decision altogether. It’s not clear what Toronto’s plans for Ceci are at this point.
Of the other pieces in the deal, Brown is clearly the most valuable. The bottom-six forward is heading into the final year of his current contract that carries a $2.1MM cap hit but is a useful player that can contribute in various situations. A 20-goal scorer as a rookie in 2016-17, the last two seasons have seen his goal totals drop dramatically as more talent was brought into the Toronto lineup. The sixth-round pick eventually found himself suiting up most nights on the fourth line, though he was still a favorite of Babcock’s on the penalty kill. The 25-year old will likely receive a bigger opportunity in Ottawa and could set himself up for another solid contract next summer with some improved offensive numbers.
Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion released a statement on his newest players:
“We’re bringing in highly competitive players that we like as long-term fits for our team. Both are the type of true professionals who match with the culture we want to put in place here in Ottawa,. Nikita is a physical right-shot defenceman who defends hard, fills lanes and blocks shots. Connor has scored 20 goals in the league and is excellent on the forecheck and the penalty kill. We feel both players will add to our depth and fit well within the structure we want our team to play.
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