Over the offseason, the Maple Leafs were looking to find a new home for veteran center David Kampf but no trade came to fruition. As a result, he was ultimately waived in training camp and, after going unclaimed, he was assigned to AHL Toronto.
Considering that GM Brad Treliving signed the 30-year-old to a four-year, $9.6MM contract a little more than two years ago, this was an outcome that wasn’t expected. The plan was that he’d continue to anchor the fourth line while providing strong work at the faceoff dot and on the penalty kill. But his role was reduced last season under Craig Berube and other lower-cost players now occupy his spot on the roster.
This season, Kampf had only played in four of seven games with the Marlies heading into the weekend. He didn’t suit up on the road in Chicago either as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (video link) that the veteran is taking a couple of days to ponder his future.
In recent years, we’ve seen a handful of players walk away from guaranteed money in the hopes of getting a more favorable opportunity in the NHL or simply to get back into the NHL. Among that group are Conor Sheary, Brandon Saad, and Filip Zadina. It’s possible that Kampf is pondering a similar route although he’d be walking away from more than $3MM in money owed between his salary this season and next plus next season’s signing bonus.
While that possibility is on the table, TSN’s Darren Dreger recently noted that the Maple Leafs are still trying to find a new home for Kampf. However, with the team needing to free up cap space to accommodate Joseph Woll’s pending return from LTIR, they’re not necessarily in a spot where they can afford to take a similarly-priced player back. Meanwhile, retaining salary would also make getting back to compliance a little trickier although they are dealing with a $1.25MM dead cap charge while Kampf is in the minors. Technically, retaining less than that amount would still save them some cap room but it would tie up a salary retention slot through June 30, 2027.
If Woll’s return is the pressure point on the team, that could still be a week or two away as it’s expected that he’ll need a conditioning stint with the Marlies, one that would last three games but could be extended by two more with league approval. However, if Kampf doesn’t want to wait that long, he could try to force the issue sooner but he’d likely have to walk away from the rest of his contract to do so. If that were to happen, his contract would come off Toronto’s books entirely beyond what has already been accrued over the first few weeks of the season.
The coach wants his OLD buddies on the payroll, even if they are nowhere as good as Kamph