It’s only been a few hours since David Kämpf had his contract terminated by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and interested teams are already coming to light. In his recent rendition of 32 Thoughts, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins were interested in signing the freshly minted unrestricted free agent.
Of all the teams that could be interested in Kämpf, the Canucks make the most sense. The team is dealing with longer-term injuries to Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger, which have further thinned an already depleted center core. Behind Elias Pettersson, the team is utilizing Max Sasson, Aatu Räty, and recently acquired Lukas Reichel as their next three options.
That’s not to suggest that Kämpf should be considered a cure-all to Vancouver’s woes, though he would be an improvement on their existing bottom-six options. The 30-year-old center has scored 31 goals and 85 points in 301 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs over the last four years, with a 51.7% success rate in the faceoff dot.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh’s interest may come from familiarity with Kämpf’s game. The Penguins General Manager and President of Hockey Operations, Kyle Dubas, brought Kämpf to the Maple Leafs ahead of the 2021-22 season on a two-year, $3MM contract. Brad Traveling was at the helm when Toronto signed Kämpf to the four-year, $9.6MM deal that was terminated this morning.
Still, the Penguins don’t have a true need for Kämpf outside of the front office’s familiarity. The team is already relatively deep at center with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kevin Hayes as their top-three options, and has put a premium on bringing in younger players — not additional ones that have already cleared the 30-year threshold.
There are a few additional teams, such as the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils, that could use more forward depth in their bottom six. Still, given that teams are already being named, Kämpf shouldn’t expect to remain a UFA for very long.
I imagine the Pens interest would be in getting him signed to a cheap deal beyond this season, which would then free up either Dewar or Lizotte to be traded.
If we aren’t going to move the big pieces (Rust, Rakell, Karlsson) we need to churn as many of the other guys for assets as possible.