Toronto goaltender Jack Campbell is now in the final year of his contract and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer but James Mirtle of The Athletic cautions (subscription link) that an extension at this point is unlikely. Despite taking over as the starter for the Maple Leafs down the stretch and in the playoffs, the 29-year-old still has less than 100 career NHL appearances under his belt (including the postseason) which makes finding the right price tag a little more difficult than usual. Instead, the smarter play for both sides may be to wait until closer to midseason to see if he’s able to beat out newcomer Petr Mrazek for the 1A role to get a better sense of whether his strong play late last season is a sign of things to come or not. Even if he doesn’t accomplish that, he’s still in line for a decent-sized raise on his current $1.65MM AAV.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- Still with the Maple Leafs, they showed interest in re-signing winger Nick Foligno this summer but in a much more limited role than he wanted, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. Toronto viewed Foligno as a veteran mentor with an emphasis on helping off the ice while the Bruins, who ultimately signed the 33-year-old, had a bigger role in mind for him. Foligno is coming off a quiet year with just 20 points in 49 games but had three straight years of more than 30 points before that and if he lands a top-six role, he could get back to that level of production.
- The Red Wings are keeping their ECHL affiliate with Toledo as the Walleye recently announced that they’ve extended their affiliation agreement for three more seasons. The two organizations have partnered up for the last 11 years with 19 players moving on from there to play in at least one NHL game. Ten of those saw action with Detroit at some point over the years including Petr Mrazek, Luke Glendening, and Nick Jensen.
And, truth be told, TOR didn’t have nearly the chance at keeping Nicky as they might have liked (see @Josh’s article from July 28).