Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Maple Leafs Rumors

Ducks May Offer Record-Breaking AAV For Mitch Marner

at CDT | by 32 Comments

Many have speculated that the Ducks will be a major player in the Mitch Marner sweepstakes. The All-Star winger is nearly guaranteed to hit the open market on July 1, and Anaheim has the third-most cap space in the league early in the offseason, according to PuckPedia.

That flexibility, plus a mandate from ownership to contend for a playoff spot next season, means they could offer Marner the most lucrative seven-year offer of any club this summer. James Mirtle of The Athletic reports Monday they’re considering offering him an AAV that would push north of the $14MM mark, making him the league’s highest-paid player starting next season.

Whether Marner is considering teams that aren’t currently established playoff contenders remains to be seen. Still, it’s hard to imagine any team, aside from the Blue Jackets and their $40.4MM in cap space, being willing to enter that range. Even an offer matching, not exceeding, Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl’s league-high $14MM cap hit comes in well north of his projected market value of just a shade under $13MM, according to AFP Analytics.

There will naturally be sticker shock when it comes to many deals this summer, with an 8.5% increase in the salary cap’s Upper Limit from $88MM to $95.5MM. Draisaitl’s mega-extension, which costs 14.66% of the cap when it starts next season, would be equivalent to a $12.9MM AAV had it gone into effect last year.

Any conversation about Marner pushing into the $14MM tier per season will result in direct comparisons between him and Draisaitl, especially with the latter’s extension being signed under a year ago and kicking in at the same time Marner’s next deal will. That’s where things will get hairy for Anaheim regarding public perception of the contract, even if acquiring a dynamic offensive threat of Marner’s caliber is a crucial long-term step in helping them return to relevance.

Draisaitl is one year Marner’s senior and had a two-year head start on him in beginning his NHL career, but the former wasn’t immediately thrust into top-six minutes like Marner was. Even still, Draisaitl’s career points per game rate of 1.21 dwarfs that of Marner’s 1.13.

The discrepancy between the two increases when putting them on equal footing regarding sample size. Draisaitl’s points-per-game rate increases to 1.32 from the beginning of Marner’s career in 2016-17. Over the past three seasons, Draisaitl has operated at a 120-point pace per 82 games compared to Marner’s 102.

The soon-to-be-former Maple Leafs winger has historically been a far more valuable player defensively than Draisaitl, but that changed this season, at least in terms of public perception. Draisaitl came one place ahead of Marner in Selke Trophy voting after posting career-best possession numbers (58.8 CF%, 61.2 xGF%) at even strength. While playoff production has far less impact on contract value, Draisaitl is in a different tier, with a 1.49 career points per game rate in the postseason compared to Marner’s 0.9.

Combine all that with Draisaitl playing a more traditionally valuable position, and it’s hard to imagine many other teams willing to match a $14MM offer for Marner if the Ducks make it, even if they technically have the resources to do so. Suppose he enters July 1 open-minded about his next destination. That discrepancy between Anaheim’s offer and whatever the second-best one is for him financially could be enough to tip the scales in the Ducks’ favor.

Maple Leafs Would Entertain Sign-And-Trade Scenarios For Marner

at CDT | by 2 Comments

  • Being the only team that can offer Mitch Marner an eight-year term before July 1st, Cam Robinson of EliteProspects has indicated the Toronto Maple Leafs could entertain a sign-and-trade scenario with Marner this offseason. The motivation behind the idea would be for Toronto to recoup some trade assets for Marner, rather than seeing him leave for nothing. However, a sign-and-trade at that level hasn’t been recorded since the Calgary Flames signed and traded Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers in 2022 for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar. Given that any interested team could sign Marner to a seven-year deal, without having to give up any prized players, means this scenario is highly unlikely to play out this summer.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Maple Leafs Hire Derek Lalonde As Assistant Coach

at CDT | by 7 Comments

The Maple Leafs announced today they’ve added former Red Wings bench boss Derek Lalonde to their coaching staff. He replaces associate coach Lane Lambert, who departed last month to accept the Kraken’s head coaching job.

Lalonde, 52, lands his next NHL job less than six months after Detroit fired him over the holiday break. The New York native was midway through his third season as head coach of the Wings, where he posted a 89-86-23 (.508) record but had gotten off to a 14-17-4 start in 2024-25.

Before his time in Detroit, Lalonde worked as an assistant coach under Jon Cooper with the Lightning from 2018-19 to 2021-22, winning a pair of Stanley Cups in the process. He oversaw the team’s defensive units and penalty kill, directly replacing the roles Lambert held in his lone season on Toronto’s staff.

Under Lalonde, the Lightning’s PK clicked at 82.7% during his four-year tenure, third-best in the league over that span. The Leafs will be counting on him to continue the shorthanded improvement Lambert helped usher in, helping boost Toronto’s PK success rate from a 23rd-place 76.9% in 2023-24 to a 17th-place 77.9% in 2024-25.

Notably, Toronto didn’t announce Lalonde with the associate coach moniker Lambert held. He’ll serve on more equal footing with returning assistants Marc Savard and Mike Van Ryn than Lambert did as a result.

Robertson Would Still Prefer To Be Traded

at CDT | by 1 Comment

While Nicholas Robertson got into a career-high 69 games with the Maple Leafs this season, his trade request from last year still stands, reports Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic (subscription link).  The 23-year-old had a career-best 15 goals this season and even chipped in with a pair of points in three postseason outings.  However, playing time remained hard to come by as he averaged just 12 minutes a night of ice time and it’s clear he’d like a shot at a bigger role elsewhere.  Robertson is a pending restricted free agent owed a qualifying offer of just under $919K.  However, he’s also arbitration-eligible which could push his price tag closer to the $1.5MM range.  If Toronto isn’t willing to pay that price, Robertson could get his wish for a change of scenery in the coming weeks.

Maple Leafs Won’t Ask Morgan Rielly To Waive No-Move Clause

at CDT | by 7 Comments

As the Maple Leafs undergo a retooling this summer following another failed attempt to reach the Eastern Conference Final, there have been some questions around the future of defenseman Morgan Rielly. Their longest-tenured player and highest-paid rearguard carries a full no-move clause for the five years remaining on his contract, though. At least this summer, Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has no intention of asking him to waive it, Pierre LeBrun said on TSN’s Insider Trading yesterday.

“He loves being a Leaf… I don’t think that needs to be a talking point going forward here,” LeBrun said. There have been questions about nearly every player on Toronto’s roster, not just because of their playoff record, but because this will be the first summer with Treliving in full control of the Leafs’ hockey operations decisions. While he’s entering his third season as Toronto’s GM, it’s his first without the oversight of president Brendan Shanahan, whom the organization said earlier this month won’t be retained.

Treliving pledged “DNA changes” during his end-of-season media availability, but it appears that’s less referring to the 31-year-old Rielly compared to the likelihood of letting star winger Mitch Marner walk in free agency. Rielly had a difficult start to the season under new head coach Craig Berube, posting 19 points and a -10 rating through his first 41 games. He improved to 22 points and a plus-two rating in the second half of the year, though, and didn’t miss a game all season. In the playoffs, Rielly recorded points in the first three games of both the first and second round but failed to get on the scoresheet later on in each series. He had a playoff-low minus-three rating in Toronto’s season-ending Game 7 loss to the Panthers.

While the Leafs now have plenty of efficient contracts on defense with Treliving’s work over the past few years, Rielly’s isn’t one of them. Calling him a No. 1 defenseman on a championship-contending team is a bit of a stretch, especially for a player whose calling card has always been his offensive skill and point production. His 0.50 points per game last season were his worst output in seven years, and his 21:23 average ice time per game was his lowest since the 2014-15 campaign. Jake McCabe actually led Toronto’s blue line in ATOI by a slim margin this year, the first time since 2017-18 that Rielly hasn’t been the Leafs’ most-used defender on a nightly basis.

A $7.5MM cap hit isn’t a drastic overpay for someone who still has legitimate rebound potential to the 50-60 point range, but the five years remaining on his contract might have limited his trade market even if he was willing to waive his NMC. Regardless, if the Leafs have plans of acquiring a new top defenseman this summer, they’ll need to do it by leveraging someone other than Rielly.

Image courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images.

Maple Leafs, Matthew Knies Made Progress On Extension Talks In-Season

at CDT | by 5 Comments

The Maple Leafs don’t expect many hiccups getting a contract for pending restricted free agent winger Matthew Knies across the finish line this offseason. On today’s 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said the two sides had preliminary talks around the trade deadline and the Leafs “know what a deal would look like.”

Any wiggle room remaining in talks is likely concerned with contract length, not annual compensation. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period relayed last month that the Leafs were pushing for a long-term deal while Knies’ camp was going for more of a three-to-five-year bridge agreement.

AFP Analytics projects a short-term agreement for Knies to come in at two years for $4.2MM annually, while a long-term agreement is projected to cost the Leafs roughly $7.25MM per year for seven years. The end result will presumably come closer to the latter number, possibly with a similar AAV for a year or two less than AFP’s projection.

Knies enters his first round of non-entry-level contract negotiations after a breakout sophomore campaign. In a consistent first-line role with Auston Matthews, the 22-year-old finished fifth on the team in scoring with 58 points (29 G, 29 A) in 78 games and saw over 18 minutes of ice time per game. His 182 hits finished third on the team and were second among forwards behind fourth-line winger Steven Lorentz.

Some have posited that, on the heels of that performance, Knies would be one of the top offer sheet targets this summer, especially since he doesn’t have arbitration eligibility to fall back on. It’s looking unlikely he’ll reach that stage, though. With Mitch Marner expected to test the UFA market, they’re not going to need to set aside cap space for a mega-extension. They’re also likely aware of what it will take to get an extension across the finish line with pending UFA center John Tavares. With significantly increased clarity on next season’s financial picture compared to a few months ago, they’ll presumably prioritize a Knies extension before he becomes eligible to sign offer sheets after officially becoming an RFA on July 1.

Maple Leafs Showed Strong Interest In Acquiring Rasmus Ristolainen Earlier This Season

at CDT | by 7 Comments

Back at the trade deadline, the Maple Leafs and Flyers made one of the bigger trades of the day with Toronto picking up center Scott Laughton.  However, it appears that Laughton wasn’t the only veteran Flyer they were going after as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays that Toronto also made a serious run for defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen at the deadline with a league source suggesting that the Maple Leafs made a very strong offer but were rebuffed.

The 30-year-old has been in trade speculation for the last couple of years now but he wasn’t moved at the 2024 deadline with the team still in the mix for a playoff spot.  Well out of contention by then this season, Ristolainen was believed to have more of a chance of moving although it appears GM Daniel Briere set a very high asking price.

Ristolainen enjoyed a bounce-back year in 2024-25, picking up 19 points in 63 games, his second-best output over the last five seasons.  More important, he upped his playing time by nearly four minutes per game compared to the year before, going from being a depth piece to one of former head coach John Tortorella’s more trusted options.

As it turns out, the deadline might have been the best time for the Flyers to move Ristolainen.  Soon after the deadline, he was shut down with an upper-body injury.  Then last month, he underwent triceps surgery, a procedure that carries a recovery timeline of six months, meaning that Ristolainen will miss training camp and the first couple of weeks of the regular season.  Speculatively, teams will want to ensure that he has fully recovered from that before putting forth their best efforts to acquire him and the final two years left on his deal that carries a $5.1MM cap charge.

On the surface, it seems unlikely that Toronto would rekindle their interest.  After failing to acquire Ristolainen, GM Brad Treliving turned his focus to acquiring defenseman Brandon Carlo to seemingly fill the same top-four role that they were likely viewing Ristolainen to fill.  With their top six on the back end intact and some prominent free agents up front, reshaping the forward group will likely be Toronto’s top priority in the coming weeks.  But with a relatively thin free agent market for right-shot blueliners, Briere should expect to be receiving some phone calls about Ristolainen once again this offseason.

David Kämpf Joins Team Czechia

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • Team Czechia couldn’t defeat Team Sweden today despite having an extra reinforcement. TSN’s Chris Johnston reported yesterday that Toronto Maple Leafs forward David Kämpf joined his home country for the quarterfinals. He managed one shot on net in 17:09 of ice time with a -1 rating in the loss.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Maple Leafs Won’t Renew Brendan Shanahan’s Contract

at CDT | by 27 Comments

The Maple Leafs will not be renewing the contract of team president Brendan Shanahan, the club announced.

In the announcement, MLSE President and CEO Keith Pelley wrote:

          “Over the past 11 seasons, Brendan Shanahan has made countless contributions to the Toronto Maple Leafs on the ice, off the ice, and in the community. Brendan is one of the most respected leaders in the game, and he has instilled many of the traits that were the signature of his Hall of Fame career throughout the organization, uniting this storied franchise in the ‘Honour, Pride and Courage’ that it was founded on. Our responsibility and driving motivation, however, is to add a new chapter to the Maple Leafs’ championship history, and it was determined that a new voice was required to take the team to the next level in the years ahead. The franchise will be forever grateful for Brendan’s contributions and wishes him and his family every success and happiness in the future.”

In a follow-up statement provided by Jonas Siegel of The Athletic, Shanahan said, “While I am proud of the rebuild we embarked on starting in 2014, ultimately, I came here to help win the Stanley Cup, and we did not. There is nothing more I wanted to deliver to our fans, and my biggest regret is that we could not finish the job.”

Although the Maple Leafs never advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals under Shanahan’s leadership, the organization embarked on a meaningful return to relevancy. Before Shanahan took on the role as team President, the Maple Leafs had only qualified for the postseason once in the previous decade.

Shanahan helped put the pieces in place for the development of the ’Core Four’ in Toronto, although the team selected William Nylander a year prior to Shanahan’s hire. The quartet has combined for a plethora of individual hardware, and has pushed the Maple Leafs to the postseason in nine consecutive years.

Still, as Shanahan mentioned, the team hasn’t had much success in the postseason. Toronto has only made it out of Round One twice during that span, and has accumulated a playoff record of 31-39 under his stewardship.

Outside of Shanahan, all signs indicate that the Maple Leafs aren’t localizing this summer’s changes in the executive suites. There’s expectation that the team will let winger Mitch Marner walk during this year’s free agency, opening up financial room to explore other options.

Shanahan shouldn’t be available for long. Reports yesterday indicated that the New York Islanders have already been granted an interview with Shanahan for their top leadership position.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top