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Maple Leafs Sign Steven Lorentz To Three-Year Extension

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The Maple Leafs announced they’ve kept forward Steven Lorentz away from the open market on a three-year, $4.05MM contract. He’ll carry a $1.35MM cap hit through the 2027-28 campaign.

The move represents a nice raise for the 29-year-old who spent this past season on a one-year contract worth the league minimum of $775K.  That came on the heels of an underwhelming year with Florida where Lorentz managed just one goal and two assists in 38 games during the regular season although he did see action in 16 playoff contests that year.

Things went better for Lorentz with his hometown team, however.  He got into 80 games with Toronto and collected eight goals and 11 assists, enough to tie his career high in points with 19 while blowing past his previous benchmark in hits with 199.  He also saw some secondary action on the penalty kill, resulting in his average ice time jumping up past the 10-minute mark per game.  Lorentz was a regular in the lineup for the Maple Leafs in the playoffs, notching a pair of assists and a little over three hits per game.

Clearly earning the trust of head coach Craig Berube, Lorentz has established himself as a trustworthy fourth liner in Toronto’s lineup and has earned himself some desired stability which was enough to keep him away from testing the open market on Tuesday.

PHR’s Brian La Rose also contributed to this article.

Maple Leafs Acquire Matias Maccelli From Mammoth

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The Maple Leafs have acquired winger Matias Maccelli from the Mammoth in exchange for their 2027 third-round pick, both teams announced. The pick will upgrade to Toronto’s 2029 second-rounder if Maccelli records at least 51 points in 2025-26 and the Leafs make the playoffs.

The change of scenery comes after a disastrous campaign for Maccelli, one of the few Utah players who took a measurable step back after the players moved there from Arizona. He was reportedly shopped around at the trade deadline, but no move came to fruition. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports Maccelli did submit an official trade request to Utah GM Bill Armstrong during the season.

It’s likely a worthwhile bet on Toronto’s part on Maccelli’s ceiling. He was a fourth-round pick by the Coyotes back in 2019, but immediately popped as a strong point producer in his native Finland and in the AHL. He forced his way into a full-time role with Arizona in 2022 and was a legitimate top-six piece for the Coyotes in their last two years of existence, finishing fourth in Calder Trophy voting back in 2022-23 on the back of an 11-goal, 49-point showing in 64 games. He continued to hover around that pace in 2023-24, playing in all 82 games for the Yotes and finishing third on the team with 57 points.

Amid increased competition from younger, higher-profile names like Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther, Maccelli’s production and ice time tumbled in Utah. He ended up spending a good part of the latter half of the year in the press box and had just eight goals and 18 points in 55 games on the year. That came with a career-low -13 rating and 13:44 average time on ice as well.

The Leafs hope Maccelli can see increased production, presumably as their second-line left wing alongside John Tavares and William Nylander, a position that was a bit of a revolving door throughout the 2024-25 campaign. He should, theoretically, fit in quite well as the primary playmaker on that line beside two incredibly skilled goal-scorers. Toronto’s focus will now turn toward finding a Mitch Marner substitute in free agency for their top line alongside Matthew Knies and Auston Matthews. After acquiring Maccelli, who’s signed through next season at a $3.425MM cap hit and will be an RFA upon expiry, they still have $10.1MM in space, per PuckPedia.

Utah doesn’t really need to make a corresponding move to replace Maccelli, who spent a good portion of the season out of the lineup anyway. They come out well here, too, for getting a potential second-rounder after the poor showing Maccelli had in 2024-25. They now have $18.4MM in cap space for next season with Jack McBain as their only notable RFA, per PuckPedia.

Darren Dreger of TSN was first to report the trade.

Image courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

Free Agent Notes: Marchand, Gavrikov, Provorov, Granlund, Faksa, Pezzetta

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If the Panthers can’t get a deal done to keep Brad Marchand in Florida before the market opens tomorrow, Darren Dreger of TSN expects the Bruins, Mammoth, and Maple Leafs to be his most aggressive suitors in free agency.

A Boston reunion would be surprising given there’s been no change in the front office that wasn’t willing to match Marchand’s cheaper requests for an extension during the season, resulting in the Bruins trading their captain to the Panthers at the deadline. Nonetheless, it’s a financially feasible move for them and one that would address their rather significant need for top-six forwards. The club still has $12.74MM in cap space after getting extensions done for names like John Beecher, Morgan Geekie, and Henri Jokiharju in the last 24 hours, per PuckPedia. Marchand would likely command a contract in the $8MM range annually if he hits the open market.

While Utah has seemed to dial back its rhetoric of making a significant free agent splash, instead placing complete trust in its young core and opting for more youthful pickups via trade, like JJ Peterka, Marchand might make more sense on a shorter-term contract. They still have nearly $15MM in cap space and enter 2025-26 with one of the youngest forward groups in the league – their only forwards 30 or older are Alexander Kerfoot and Liam O’Brien.

The Leafs also have their cap flexibility for Tuesday dialed in after getting rather affordable extensions done for Matthew Knies ($7.75MM) and John Tavares ($4.38MM AAV) in the last few days. They’d presumably be one of the more appealing fits for Marchand to remain both with a contending team and in a top-six role, potentially even seeing top-line minutes in place of the departing Mitch Marner.

Here are a few more rumors from around the NHL ahead of the official start of free agency on Tuesday:

  • Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic relays that the Kings are making a last-ditch effort today to reach an extension with defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. While general manager Ken Holland said over the weekend he expects Gavrikov to test the market, L.A. still hasn’t heard back from Gavrikov’s camp on their final offer.
  • While things were quiet on extension talks between the Blue Jackets and defenseman Ivan Provorov for weeks, they re-engaged in negotiations yesterday, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports. They presumably decided getting yesterday’s extension for Dante Fabbro done, ensuring they retain depth on their weaker right side of the blue line, was a priority over Provorov’s talks.
  • Center Mikael Granlund and the Stars continue to have mutual interest in an extension, according to LeBrun. It still looks unlikely something will get done before tomorrow with the Stars having just $980K in projected cap space for next season, but they could reach a handshake agreement if Dallas is confident they can move out other contracts to make Granlund’s money work. They’ve already been successful in retaining vets Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene on below-market-value deals.
  • Depth pivot Radek Faksa will have plenty of options tomorrow if he reaches the market, given the lack of centers available, but there’s still the possibility he stays with the Blues. The two sides remain in extension talks, says Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic.
  • The Maple Leafs are among the teams expected to have interest in Canadiens enforcer Michael Pezzetta, assuming he hits the market tomorrow, reports LeBrun.

Maple Leafs Could File For Tampering If Mitch Marner Signs With Golden Knights

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are just days away from a separation with their superstar right-winger Mitch Marner. Signs have pointed towards Marner testing the free agent market for the bulk of the regular season – but official word of the split came via Chris Johnston of The Athletic in mid-May. It’s been a scramble in the five weeks since, with multiple teams pushing their way into the sweepstakes for a 100-point winger. As usual in big-end moves, the Vegas Golden Knights have made themselves front-and-center in discussions – and even gone as far as discussing a trade to acquire Marner’s negotiation rights. But draft day rumors have revealed that, should Vegas sign Marner right away on July 1st without a trade, the Maple Leafs are prepared to file a tampering charge against the Golden Knights, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the latest 32 Thoughts Podcast.

Friedman emphasized repeatedly that despite these rumors, there is no present evidence of any tampering in Vegas. He also added that charges of tampering would likely go away should the two sides complete a trade before July. But teams are recently acutely sensitive to evidence of tampering, and Friedman adds that the NHL has recently been eyeing opportunities to set examples of how player rights should be managed and respected.

Tampering has been a hot topic in the NHL over the last year. The NHL included a reminder of tampering rules in the 2024-25 season’s first round of GM meetings in November. Specifically, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly reiterated that teams do not have the power to negotiate or agree to new deals with pending-free agents until noon ET on July 1st, unless provided express permission from the rightsholder.

Marner isn’t the only player with tampering concerns swirling around. The Maple Leafs were also the subject of a tampering scare over the last few weeks, after popular podcaster Paul Bissonnette shared that Toronto had already agreed to a deal with Brad Marchand on the Spittin Chiclets podcast — though it appeared those claims were ultimately debunked. The NHL also investigated possible tampering charges against the New Jersey Devils, Seattle Kraken, San Jose Sharks, and Chicago Blackhawks last summer – for their potentially premature signings of Brett Pesce, Brandon Montour, Tyler Toffoli, and Tyler Bertuzzi respectively. The Ottawa Senators also alleged “soft tampering” against the New York Rangers for their pursuit of Brady Tkachuk in December.

On a Hockey Night in Canada broadcast from December, Friedman listed out some of the potential penalties for teams caught tampering (captured here by @PuckReportNHL on Twitter). At a team level, the possible punishments included a fine of up to $5MM, termination of contracts signed, forfeiture of draft picks, and rewarding of confiscated draft picks or cash to the effected club. Players can also be penalized with a $1MM fine, suspension, or expulsion from the league.

For a player like Marner, the thought of tampering charges will ring loud. He is headed for a possible record-breaking, or record-tying, contract this summer after netting 102 points in 81 games this season. He’s among the league’s best wingers – and will be making the first move of his nine-year career with a change of teams this summer. If the NHL is looking for an example to set, closely monitoring free agent negotiations at this scale would be a strong place to start.

These concerns could be mitigated by a swap of assets for Marner’s negotiating rights, which would allow Vegas to sign Marner ahead of July 1st while also providing compensation back to the Maple Leafs. Should Vegas have any concerns, that move may be a nice safeguard to ensure they can land another lineup star with no barriers. Then again, with no clear evidence of tampering, rumors or concerns spreading around NHL circles will be no more than that, until a team is proven guilty.

Golden Knights, Maple Leafs Discussing Mitch Marner Trade

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs are in active negotiations for a sign-and-trade deal that would see Mitch Marner end up in Nevada. Friedman followed up on the initial report, stating that forward Nicolas Roy is expected to be part of the return to Toronto if a deal is finalized. A few moments later, TSN’s Bruce Garrioch reported that the Maple Leafs requested defenseman Nicolas Hague in the return as well.

Although sign-and-trades of this caliber are exceptionally rare, the Golden Knights’ motivation to make the move now, instead of pursuing Marner for nothing in a few days, is likely twofold. Acquiring him with a new contract in place now eliminates all competition for his services, and would allow Vegas to add an eighth year to his contract via Toronto.

Besides the magnitude of the hypothetical trade, the news comes with little surprise. The Golden Knights are no stranger to making sizeable additions to the roster and have been linked to Marner by various outlets for several weeks.

Depending on the dollar amount for Marner’s next deal, Vegas should be able to get a deal done rather comfortably. Assuming Roy is in the trade, the Golden Knights would have approximately $8.6MM available in cap space, with an additional $8.8MM available if defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is headed for the long-term injured reserve.

Adding Marner to a forward core that already includes Jack Eichel and Mark Stone would be enough to create one of the most dynamic offenses in the league. Eichel was the team’s leader in points this past season, scoring 28 goals and 94 points in 77 games. Meanwhile, Marner recently concluded the best individual season of his career, scoring 27 goals and 102 points in 81 contests with a +18 rating.

Despite not having a 100-point scorer in their brief team history, Vegas was still able to finish with the league’s fifth-best offense this season, averaging 3.34 goals per game. Unfortunately, their defense may suffer as a result of the trade.

Assuming Pietrangelo is headed for the LTIR, and Hague is included in the trade, that leaves the Golden Knights in the unenviable position of giving consistent minutes to Ben Hutton and Kaedan Korczak throughout the 2025-26 campaign, with few dollars to improve. They may find better options on the trade market, but it’ll be challenging with Marner presumably anchoring their salary cap table.

According to Friedman, Vegas views their situation similarly when it comes to their defensive core. The insider for Sportsnet indicated earlier that the Golden Knights attempted to acquire defenseman Rasmus Andersson from the Calgary Flames earlier this week, though nothing worthwhile came to fruition.

Meanwhile, while only knowing a few of the reported names hypothetically headed to Toronto, Roy would be a quality addition for the Maple Leafs. Although he’s best used as a third-line center, Roy would bring a ton of versatility to Toronto’s forward with the ability to play up and down a lineup.

He’s been a consistent secondary scorer for the Golden Knights over the past four years, scoring 57 goals and 141 points in 284 games with a +26 rating, averaging 15:48 of ice time per night while maintaining a 47.9% success rate in the faceoff dot. Additionally, he’s a capable presence in the playoffs, scoring three goals and 11 points in 22 postseason contests during Vegas’ run to a Stanley Cup title in 2023.

Moving to the blue line, Hague is a known commodity in the league and has generated plenty of interest this summer. Utilizing a similar playstyle to Jake McCabe, Hague is a quality top-four option who can eat meaningful minutes. Although he’s not much of a point producer, Hague is an incredibly physical defenseman and stalwart in the defensive zone, managing a 90.9% on-ice save percentage in 364 games as a Golden Knight.

Islanders Offered Dobson For Marner Last Deadline

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According to Arthur Staple, formerly of The Athletic, Lamoriello attempted to package Dobson with other pieces at last season’s trade deadline to acquire forward Mitch Marner from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ultimately, likely due to Toronto’s disapproval at the time, no trade materialized between the two teams.

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Maple Leafs Sign John Tavares To Four-Year Extension

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the final stages of signing John Tavares to an extension. The move was first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger. It was later confirmed by the player on the Instagram page for the John Tavares Foundation — and then by the team themselves. Dreger adds that the deal with be a four-year, $17.52MM extension with an annual average value of $4.38MM.

Tavares’ extension will include $2MM in deferred salary – a practice soon to be outlawed in the NHL’s next collective bargaining agreement, per Chris Johnston of The Athletic. Johnston also shares that Tavares’ deal will carry a no-movement clause through the first two seasons, and a five-team no-trade list in the final two.

Toronto gets an important piece of business accomplished, for a price well under what many Leafs fans expected. The deal is a near-$4MM discount against Tavares’ player value, calculated by The Athletic’s statistician Dom Luszczyscyn. Tavares was coming off of a monstrous, seven-year, $77MM contract signed with Toronto on July 1st, 2018. The deal ate up 13.84 percent of Toronto’s cap-hit at the time, and often served to limit the team’s roster flexibility, alongside lofty deals for Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander.

Now age 34, Tavares will drop his cap hit by nearly two-thirds, and likely ride out the remainder of his career in a Maple Leafs jersey. He’s a Mississauga native, with deep roots in and around the Leafs organization. That includes serving as the team’s captain from 2019 to 2024. He was replaced this season by Matthews.

Tavares’ last contract was often scrutinized, but his performance on the deal should be remembered fondly. He filled a hardy role as the team’s second-line center for the duration of the contract, and totaled 222 goals and 493 points in 515 games. That mark ranks third on the Maple Leafs since the start of the 2018-19 season, behind Marner (611 points in 498 games) and Matthews (595 points in 485 games). Tavares also scored 31 points in 51 playoff games in that stretch – fifth on the Leafs behind Matthews, Nylander, Marner, and Morgan Rielly.

Tavares has been a staple of every lineup he’s played for. Prior to joining his hometown Maple Leafs, he was the quintessential top-line center for the New York Islanders spanning nine seasons. The Islanders originally drafted Tavares first-overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, following the end of his exceptional status career in the OHL. He joined the team immediately following his draft, and scored an impressing 54 points in 81 games as a rookie.

His hot-start in the NHL continued to grow-and-grow over his time with the Islanders. Tavares recorded 31 goals and 81 points in the 2011-12 season, and topped that again with 38 goals and 86 points in 2014-15. By that time, he had already served two full years as the Islanders’ captain, and earned the second all-star berth of his career. Tavares would remain New York’s captain, and a perennial all-star, until he left the squad after the 2017-18 campaign.

Tavares’ departure from Long Island, NY was one of the most scrutinized moves in recent NHL history. It was seen by many as a captain abandoning his post, with a preference for the glitz and glamour of a big market. The Islanders have appeared in four of a possible six postseasons since Tavares’ departure, while Toronto has made the playoffs in every year since their big addition.

In a summer where Toronto seems headed for a sure breakup with superstar winger Marner, they’ll opt to not shake the boat too much by also losing Tavares. Instead, Tavares will remain locked-in as Toronto’s second-line center through the foreseeable future. He scored a stout 38 goals and 74 points in 75 games this season – his highest scoring pace since netting 36 goals and 80 points in 80 games of the 2022-23 campaign. Those are electric scoring totals for a player well over the hill of his NHL career. At a cheap price for the next four seasons, even two-thirds of those scoring totals would make Tavares a contract worth hanging onto.

Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports.

Maple Leafs Interested In Re-Signing Max Pacioretty

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  • Nick Alberga of The Leafs Nation reports that the Toronto Maple Leafs remain interested in re-signing winger Max Pacioretty for next season. Despite a solid postseason performance, Pacioretty should warrant a relatively cheaper contract, given he missed more than half of the season due to injury. Still, Alberga notes that Pacioretty is prioritizing remaining close to his family in Michigan, meaning his desired employer will come down to the Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings.

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Matt Martin Announces Retirement, Joins Islanders Front Office

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Longtime Islanders enforcer Matt Martin has announced his retirement, per a club announcement Tuesday. He’ll join the club’s front office as a special assistant to general manager Mathieu Darche.

A fifth-round pick by the Isles as an overager in 2008, Martin rose the ranks quicker than expected for his draft slot and made his NHL debut in February 2010 amid his first professional season. He became a fourth-line fixture in his second season. He maintained that role through the 2015-16 campaign, eventually forming one of the most recognizable checking lines of the decade with Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck. While never a huge scorer, he did have 10 goals in the final season of his first stint on Long Island and averaged a remarkable 379 hits per 82 games over his first seven NHL seasons.

Martin left Long Island for the Maple Leafs in free agency in 2016, signing a four-year, $10MM contract. While that value indicated Toronto was looking for him to play an increased role compared to his fourth-line deployment in New York, the opposite happened. After averaging around 11 minutes per game with the Islanders, he averaged just 8:33 per game over two seasons in Toronto. He sat as a healthy scratch for much of the 2017-18 season and was traded back to the Islanders the following summer.

Injuries became more of a theme for Martin in his second go-around with the Isles, but he regained his role alongside Cizikas and Clutterbuck and was a lineup fixture when healthy. He was still quite effective as a checking forward up to a few years ago, even matching his career-high 19 points in 2022-23. His ice time and deployment saw a reduction beginning in 2023-24 as his already minimal offensive value disappeared, and he appeared in just 32 games last season after pondering retirement but landing a PTO and subsequent one-year deal to return to New York for his 16th NHL season.

Martin retires as the Islanders’ all-time leader in hits with 3,489, and his 3,936 career checks are 93 short of the all-time record held by his longtime teammate, Clutterbuck, who also recently announced his retirement after not playing in 2024-25. His 855 games played are the eighth-most in franchise history.

All of us at PHR wish Martin the best in retirement and congratulate him on a career that will permanently cement him with the latest iteration of Islanders hockey.

Image courtesy of Tom Horak-Imagn Images.

Maple Leafs Linked To Mikael Granlund, Pius Suter

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The Maple Leafs have displayed interest in centers Mikael Granlund and Pius Suter to bolster their depth at the position after free agency opens next week, according to Kristen Shilton of ESPN.

They’re expected to pursue them for a bigger punch down the middle, even if they agree to a new contract with No. 2 center John Tavares, also a pending UFA. If they can’t extend the latter, though, pursuing one or both of Granlund and Suter this summer immediately becomes their top priority instead of a “nice-to-have” pickup in addition to a partial replacement for Mitch Marner on the wing. That’s an increasingly likely outcome with Tavares and the Leafs not being close on a new deal as of Saturday.

If the Leafs manage to retain Tavares, they’d presumably be more interested in Suter as a minute-munching third-line option while keeping Tavares in favorable offensive deployment with William Nylander on the second line if he’s not moved up to Auston Matthews’ unit in place of the departing Marner. Granlund, on the other hand, is far less of a two-way player than Suter but has a significantly higher offensive ceiling that could, at least feasibly, be a near-direct replacement for Tavares in favorable usage if they can’t re-sign him. The 33-year-old Finn totaled 22 goals and 66 points in 83 games this year, split between the Sharks and Stars. That’s 0.19 fewer points per game than Tavares gave Toronto, but playing with Nylander could help him cover the gap.

Suter would be an expensive third-line piece, but the 29-year-old would be worth the price of admission to give the club its best option at the position since their deadline pickup of Ryan O’Reilly in 2023. The 5’11” Swiss native had a career-high 25 goals and 46 points last year with Vancouver, averaging north of 17 minutes per game and often seeing duties as a matchup forward. He played far more at center than he had in the past, and while faceoffs remain an issue (42.7 FOW%), he had favorable possession metrics in the most difficult defensive deployment of his five-year NHL career. He saw significant time on both special teams units as well, particularly shorthanded, where he averaged 2:17 per game to lead Vancouver forwards.

Shilton named Claude Giroux as a more speculative/tertiary option. He’s not mentioned in the same tier of interest as Granlund and Suter for good reason. The 37-year-old remains in productive talks with the Senators on a contract extension and hasn’t consistently played down the middle in quite some time, although he still takes a good deal of faceoffs and does so quite well. He won 59.1% of his draws over the last three years in Ottawa.

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