Cap-Shedding Move Not Needed Right Away
With the Maple Leafs showing as being over the cap by nearly $1.5MM per CapFriendly, many expect them to be among the teams looking to make a cap-shedding trade over the coming weeks. However, Sports Illustrated’s David Alter suggests that such a move isn’t necessarily needed right away, even when RFA defenseman Rasmus Sandin re-signs. With the offseason cushion in place for another couple of months, there’s still some time to work with and by the end of training camp, things could change from an injury standpoint. Alternatively, Toronto could opt to carry a 20-player roster which, depending on which players are waived and potentially sent down, could narrowly get them compliant to start the season, especially if Sandin settles for a low-cost one-year deal. At this point, it’d be a little surprising if Toronto didn’t find a way to create a little cap flexibility but they still have some time to work things out.
Montreal Canadiens Hire Stephane Robidas
The Montreal Canadiens have added another coach without much experience, hiring Stephane Robidas as an assistant for Martin St. Louis‘ staff. General manager Kent Hughes explained the move:
We are very lucky to have someone of Stephane’s caliber join our coaching staff. His recent experience as an NHL player, and his outstanding hockey background, will be excellent assets for the development of our players. Stephane perfectly matches the profile we were looking for in a candidate. In addition to being an exceptional individual, he is a very good communicator, and I believe that players will relate to him because of that.
Notably, though he has no experience as an NHL coach, he did serve as director of player development for several years with the Toronto Maple Leafs. That experience with young players is going to come in handy with the rebuilding Canadiens, along with his familiarity with the organization. Robidas was a seventh-round pick of Montreal back in 1995 and made his NHL debut with the club before moving on to several other teams.
It’s something of a trend now for the Canadiens to hire a coach out of minor hockey, as Robidas spent last season behind the bench of the Magog Cantonniers, the same QMAAA team that he and his son Justin Robidas played for. Justin was a 2021 draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes and spent last season captaining the Val-d’Or Foreurs.
While his son is just trying to start on his hockey journey, Stephane can look back at an NHL career that lasted more than 900 games. The right-shot defenseman was even invited to an All-Star Game and participated in the World Championship for Canada on three different occasions.
John Tavares Focusing On Skating During Offseason Training
- Working with very limited cap space, the Toronto Maple Leafs have done their best to improve this offseason, changing out their entire goaltending duo for a new one and adding a few pieces, most notably headlined by winger Calle Jarnkrok, who signed a four-year deal with Toronto in free agency. To improve further, Toronto will have to look in-house for certain players to step up and one of those is captain John Tavares. In a recent interview, the veteran center told Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star that he has spent this summer training with Maple Leafs development staff, working to be a quicker skater. As Tavares said, “For me, obviously just trying to be a little quicker, a little lighter on my feet. I think that’s really important.” Tavares’ skating has certainly never been revered as his best asset, however the soon-to-be 32-year-old will need to at the least maintain his skating ability to continue to produce at the elite level that is expected of him and his $11MM cap hit that he carries for three more seasons.
San Jose Sharks Linked To Spencer Carbery
The San Jose Sharks are late to the head coaching search party. After firing Bob Boughner and his staff later into the offseason, most marquee coaching options are off the market, leaving the Sharks to get creative with their search. According to San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng, multiple sources confirmed to him that the team has interviewed Spencer Carbery for the open position.
Carbery spent 2021-22 as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was responsible for the team’s power play, which finished first in the league during the regular season. 40 years old, Carbery was named the AHL’s Coach of the Year in 2021, his last of three seasons as the head coach of the Hershey Bears. He also won the same award in the ECHL in 2014 during a five-year run as head coach of the South Carolina Stingrays. You might recognize them for being the team where Stanley Cup Champion coach Jared Bednar got his head coaching start.
Carbery would certainly help San Jose’s goal output if his time in Toronto is any indication. San Jose’s power play clocked in at 19% last season, 22nd in the NHL, while they scored just 211 goals in total, which was third-last. He could be the key to an offensive resurgence from players like Erik Karlsson and help get the most out of youngsters like William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau if they make the team.
Toronto Maple Leafs Re-Sign Pierre Engvall
A familiar face will be sticking around with the Toronto Maple Leafs, with the club announcing forward and current RFA Pierre Engvall has been re-signed on a one-year deal. The team did not announce the financial terms of the contract, however The Athletic’s James Mirtle reports the contract is worth $2.25MM for this season. Engvall’s extension gives him a $1MM raise on the two-year, $2.5MM contract that had just expired, which carried an AAV of $1.25MM. The contract also means that both sides avoid arbitration, with the deadline for player-elected salary arbitration coming today and the club-elected deadline coming tomorrow. The contract leaves Engvall an UFA after this season.
The Swedish forward earned his raise this past season, setting career-highs in games played (78), goals (15), assists (20), and points (35), all marking substantial improvements on his previous bests. Not an overly physical player, Engvall’s size, listed at 6’5″ and 214 pounds, does allow him to use his body to create space for himself and get in position to help develop plays. Now established as a legitimate secondary-scoring threat for Toronto, Engvall can use this upcoming season to repeat and build on his 2021-22 to vault him into a longer-term contract in the free agent market next offseason as a 27-year-old.
The addition of this contract projects to put Toronto nearly $1.5MM over the salary cap ceiling (a 10% overage permissible in the offseason), but still represents a positive outcome for the organization. After Engvall’s breakout season, it was certainly possible that an arbitration could award the forward $3MM or perhaps as much as even $3.5MM for his efforts. Though that outcome was not guaranteed, it is a risk teams take when they head to arbitration, and likely the reason the team chose not to qualify forward Ondrej Kase, who is now a member of the Carolina Hurricanes. Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, they are still not done with their RFA contracts, young defenseman Rasmus Sandin needing a new deal, although not eligible for arbitration himself.
Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Calle Jarnkrok
Free agent “frenzy” may be over, but there are still players available looking for contracts. The Toronto Maple Leafs have added one of those players, forward Calle Jarnkrok. The team has announced the deal, and the contract is a four-year contract with a $2.1MM average annual value.
Jarnkrok, 30, split 2021-22 with the Seattle Kraken and Calgary Flames. He arrived in Seattle as their choice from the Nashville Predators at the expansion draft, and was traded to Calgary for three draft picks. Jarnkrok played 66 games last season and scored 12 goals and 30 points in 66 games. Jarnkrok’s offensive production throughout his career has been largely consistent, and he’s finished around the 30-point range with around 15 goals in most of the years he’s spent in the NHL.
Jarnkrok offers positional versatility, as he can play center and the wing, and plays a 200-foot game that coaches can trust. The Maple Leafs lost speedy middle-six winger Ilya Mikheyev to the Vancouver Canucks earlier this week, so Jarnkrok can slide into their lineup and play his role as a two-way middle-sixer and penalty killer. Jarnkrok has featured on penalty kills in the past and got sporadic time on the Flames’ penalty kill and second-unit time on the Kraken’s penalty kill.
At 30 years old, the four-year term for Jarnkrok may be a bit risky. But his $2.1MM cap hit is definitely affordable, and if he can play to his normal 15-goal, 30 to 35-point form in Toronto this deal will be a solid investment for GM Kyle Dubas, and the sort of signing that coach Sheldon Keefe will greatly appreciate.
Toronto Maple Leafs Expected To Sign Victor Mete, Jordie Benn
The Toronto Maple Leafs continue on their crusade of swooping up unqualified RFAs, adding some defensive depth in the process. According to Sportsnet’s Luke Fox, the team is bringing in defenseman Victor Mete. They’ve also signed gritty veteran Jordie Benn on a one-year deal for $750K, which is the price of both deals.
Mete heads to his third Canadian team after spending five NHL seasons with the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators. A decent depth defenseman, most would say Mete was rushed into NHL minutes at age 19 despite being the 100th overall pick just one year prior to his debut in 2017-18. He’d posted really solid defensive play during his time in Montreal, but after the Senators claimed him on waivers in April of 2021, he didn’t have the same success. He played just 37 of 82 games in 2021-22, averaging only 14:37 per game and notching seven assists. It was a year to forget for Mete, but he’ll now head to Toronto to rediscover his defensive game.
Benn, 34, joins the Leafs after an eight-point, 39-game season with the Minnesota Wild last year. Jamie Benn‘s older brother hasn’t been terribly effective for years now aside from providing a gritty, physical presence at the bottom of the lineup, and he’ll provide the same thing for Toronto. He’ll likely get most of his action when the team opts to ice 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
Toronto Maple Leafs To Sign Denis Malgin
Per ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, the Toronto Maple Leafs are bringing back forward Denis Malgin off their reserve list, giving him a one-year deal.
Malgin, somewhat infamously acquired from the Florida Panthers in exchange for Mason Marchment, has spent the last two seasons as one of the best players in the NL in his native Switzerland. After notching 52 points in 48 games with the ZSC Lions in 2021-22, he’ll return to Toronto to give it another shot in a depth role.
Malgin had no points in eight games after the trade in 2019-20. He spent the 2020-21 season on loan to Lausanne HC in Switzerland. While unsigned by Toronto last year, he remained on the team’s reserve list as he did receive a qualifying offer from the team. He’ll now aim to make the team this fall and contribute in a bottom-six role. Toronto will be counting on contributions from depth players like him in order to remain playoff contenders this season.
Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Adam Gaudette
The Toronto Maple Leafs have added some Cup-winning depth at forward. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the Leafs have signed Nicolas Aube-Kubel to a one-year contract worth $1MM. They’ve also signed forward Adam Gaudette to a one-year deal worth $750,000.
Aube-Kubel, 26, is fresh off of a Stanley Cup victory with the Colorado Avalanche. Aube-Kubel arrived in Colorado as a waiver claim and proved to be a nice bottom-six find for GM Joe Sakic. Kubel had 11 goals and 22 points in 67 games, healthy offensive production for someone who only got 9:45 average time-on-ice per game. Aube-Kubel didn’t feature on any of the Avalanche’s special teams, although that could say more about the quality of the Avalanche’s roster than it does about Aube-Kubel’s talent level. At a $1MM cost with no term attached, Aube-Kubel is a nice bottom-six addition for a Maple Leaf team that needs to squeeze maximum value out of every cap dollar.
Gaudette is a different add than Aube-Kubel. While the Maple Leafs can be reasonably sure that Aube-Kubel will be a positive contributor at the bottom of their lineup, Gaudette offers no such guarantees. Gaudette’s signing is similar to the Maple Leafs’ acquisition of Alex Galchenyuk last season. Gaudette, like Galchenyuk, is a former top prospect who offers an all-offense, no-defense game.
At his most productive, the 25-year-old Gaudette had 33 points in 59 games for the Canucks, although they often had to shelter him thanks to his defensive deficiencies. Gaudette bounced from Vancouver to Chicago to Ottawa via trade and a waiver claim and now heads to Toronto as GM Kyle Dubas’ latest attempt at reviving a skilled players’ career on a reclamation project signing.
Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Ilya Samsonov
11:00 AM Per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Maple Leafs have signed Samsonov to a one-year deal worth $1.8MM. Toronto has now confirmed a Murray-Samsonov tandem for 2022-23.
10:28 AMThe Toronto Maple Leafs may have found their second goaltender, as Arthur Staple of The Athletic links them to Ilya Samsonov. The former Washington Capitals netminder was not given a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent this summer, putting him on the open market.
Samsonov, 25, hasn’t lived up to his first-round draft position just yet but carries the kind of massive upside that a team like the Maple Leafs have to swing for at this point in free agency. They already acquired Matt Murray from the Ottawa Senators, hoping they could bring out the level that helped him to two Stanley Cup championships in Pittsburgh, and now they’ll bring in another inconsistent netminder hoping to unlock hidden talent.
Selected 22nd overall in 2015, Samsonov had a strong rookie season for Washington in 2019-20 but has been putting up worse and worse numbers ever since. This year he had an .896 save percentage in 44 appearances, obviously not good enough for the Capitals to retain him as their starter moving forward.
Still, he had an okay performance in the postseason, and that’s what the Maple Leafs are focused on. The team simply has to find a way through the first round and with a Murray-Samsonov tandem there is at least the potential for excellent goaltending.
It is a risk though, and likely an expensive one. There is a real chance that both netminders fail to find another level and give the Maple Leafs sub-.900 goaltending all year long.