Toronto Maple Leafs Announce Bevy Of Signings
The Toronto Maple Leafs have officially announced contracts for several players:
- Pontus Aberg: One year, $700K AAV
- Kenny Agostino: Two years, $738K AAV
- Tyler Gaudet: One year, two-way, $700K AAV, $300K AHL salary per PuckPedia
- Kalle Kossila: Two years, two-way, $700K AAV
- Nick Shore: One year, $750K AAV
- Garrett Wilson: One year, $725K AAV
- Kevin Gravel: One year, $700K AAV
There had been previous reporting about several of these deals, but the contracts were likely being held back because of the situation with Mitch Marner. The Maple Leafs needed to protect themselves against a potential offer sheet, something they can still now do following yesterday’s acquisition of David Clarkson. The Clarkson and Nathan Horton contracts that are headed for long-term injured reserve at some point give the team some added flexibility, but also require certain conditions to be met. In order to take full effect of the LTIR provision a team needs to be as close to the cap as possible, something the Maple Leafs will do with paper transactions involving players like this.
In fact, none of these seven may end up on the NHL roster to start the year. Any of them certainly could carve out a role for themselves in training camp and impress the coaching staff, but the Maple Leafs already had enough players to fill out a roster before announcing any of these deals. In reality they will serve as valuable depth for a team that expects to contend for the Stanley Cup, something head coach Mike Babcock was critical of a few months ago, explaining that other teams had done a better job of insulating the roster from injury.
Aberg, one of the players that had not been previously linked to the Maple Leafs, is also one of the more interesting additions. The 25-year old was selected 37th overall in 2012 by the Nashville Predators and at one point looked like an up-and-coming option for them. After scoring 31 goals in 56 games in the AHL during the 2016-17 season, Aberg was an impact player during the Predators’ playoff run, scoring a Bobby Orr-esque game-winner against the Anaheim Ducks in the Conference Finals. Unfortunately things didn’t continue on that upward swing and he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers in 2018 only to find himself suit up for two other teams in the period since.
Gaudet too is an interesting name to see come across the wire, if only because of his connection with Toronto GM Kyle Dubas. Gaudet played two years for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL while Dubas was the GM there, before ultimately starting his professional career with the Portland Pirates. Dubas would be intimately familiar with Gaudet’s strengths and weaknesses, as would Toronto Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe who was also with the Greyhounds at the time.
The final name that hadn’t been previously reported is Kossila, who spent most of the 2018-19 season with the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. The undrafted forward out of St. Cloud State has 19 NHL games under his belt but has been an excellent offensive player at the minor league level. At very worst he will give the Marlies some more punch up front.
All seven players will require waivers in order to be assigned to the minor leagues, though after inking so many of them the risk of losing some depth at that point is minimal. The Maple Leafs are once again flexing their financial might in many of these cases, offering one-way contracts to players who may have not otherwise received them.
Vegas Golden Knights Trade David Clarkson, Sign Deryk Engelland
The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired the contract of retired forward David Clarkson from the Vegas Golden Knights. The deal will see Garret Sparks go to the Golden Knights while Toronto will also receive a 2020 fourth-round pick. Clarkson has one year remaining on his contract and carries a $5.25MM cap hit. He will spend the year on long-term injured reserve. With the extra space, the Golden Knights have re-signed Deryk Engelland to a one-year $700K contract that also includes up to $800K in performance bonuses.
A deal like this appears confusing on the surface, given Toronto’s cap crunch and the fact that they still need to sign Mitch Marner. The most likely reason for it though is that the team is already planning on going deep into LTIR with Nathan Horton‘s contract (and perhaps Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott who are both on the shelf to start the year following various surgeries) and can use the Clarkson deal to go even further. This is not necessarily the case for the Golden Knights, who were well over the cap before moving Clarkson and needed to shed salary before the end of the offseason. Technically the Maple Leafs could wait until the first day of the season to sign Marner, avoiding offseason LTIR (which has a slightly different calculation for how much is added to the cap ceiling) in order to open enough room. Clarkson and Horton have a combined $10.55MM cap hit which, depending on how close the Maple Leafs can get their roster to the current $81.5MM salary cap ceiling, would be added on top to give them a new ceiling of ~$92MM.
Clarkson only has $1MM of actual salary remaining on his contract, but was making things much more difficult for the Golden Knights as they approach the season. If they can avoid it, it is almost always better for a team to not be using long-term injured reserve space as it can cause huge roster issues if you get into injury trouble and has the potential to cause cap overages from performance bonuses. By moving Clarkson, the Golden Knights are actually now projected to be a little more than $1MM under the cap ceiling, though they still have Nikita Gusev to sign (or trade).
Vegas also adds Sparks in the deal, giving the team a legitimate third (or perhaps second) option in net behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Malcolm Subban. The former AHL Goaltender of the Year has just a $750K one-way contract, making him more than affordable if the team decides Subban is not up to the task or someone suffers an injury. Sparks has played in 37 NHL games, recording an .898 save percentage. His numbers in the minor leagues though are spectacular, meaning he may have more to give at the highest level. The 26-year old goaltender will be an unrestricted free agent next summer and the Maple Leafs had seemingly moved on by re-signing Michael Hutchinson and bringing in Michal Neuvirth on a professional tryout.
Interestingly, a deal like this may not only open up enough room for Marner to sign. Depending on what the Maple Leafs do, they may be able to clear enough space to fit in Jake Gardiner, who remains unsigned despite coming into the offseason as arguably the best defenseman in unrestricted free agency. Gardiner has indicated his desire to stay if possible, though obviously nothing is official at this point.
Basically, the Maple Leafs admitted to themselves that they would need to use long-term injured reserve once again this season and have pushed even more chips to the middle. This kind of a move is only possible because Auston Matthews has now graduated out of his entry-level deal, which brought with it the opportunity for millions of dollars in performance bonuses. It’s important to note though that this is not just free cap space, but an intricate transaction that requires the team to be very careful with how they use their roster throughout the season. The Maple Leafs can afford to do things like this because of the organization’s financial might, an advantage some other teams do not have.
Michal Neuvirth Expected To Attend Toronto Maple Leafs Camp
According to a report from iSport in the Czech Republic, veteran goaltender Michal Neuvirth will sign a professional tryout with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Neuvirth is an unrestricted free agent after his contract with the Philadelphia Flyers expired, and would be battling with other goaltenders like Garret Sparks and Michael Hutchinson who are both already signed to one-way contracts.
Neuvirth, 31, has a long history in the NHL but not all of it has been successful. Originally selected 34th overall by the Washington Capitals—quite a high pick for a goaltender—he quickly made it to their NHL squad and played parts of six seasons. In Washington he had a .910 save percentage and even started nine games during their playoff run in 2011. Neuvirth has suited up for the New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres in addition to Washington and Philadelphia, and has 257 games under his belt over an 11-year career.
That experience may not mean anything if he can’t show a substantial upgrade over Sparks and Hutchinson. The two backups will both require waivers to be sent down to the minor leagues, leaving Toronto in the same vulnerable situation they found themselves in last fall. Deciding to keep the younger Sparks, Toronto placed both Curtis McElhinney and Calvin Pickard on waivers and when both were claimed the team suddenly had no goaltending depth. They eventually traded for Hutchinson, while Sparks had an up-and-down season as Frederik Andersen‘s primary backup. That situation could potentially happen again, though it is unclear at this point how many teams will be looking for goaltending at the end of camp.
Toronto Maple Leafs Expected To Sign Garrett Wilson
The Toronto Maple Leafs look to have added some depth at the forward position as they have signed former Pittsburgh Penguins’ fourth-liner Garrett Wilson to a contract, according to Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports. No terms have been released.
The 28-year-old Wilson spent the last three years with the Penguins, spending the first two years with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL, but got a chance at the NHL level last year. He played a career-high 50 games with the Penguins last season, posting two goals and eight points, while averaging just 7:37 of ATO, although he did provide the team with 114 hits. Wilson also played in all four of Pittsburgh’s playoffs games this year and he did score a goal and add 14 hits.
A move to Toronto likely means that Wilson will be expected to play for the Toronto Marlies in the AHL, where he has tallied 87 career goals. Toronto, always a top contender in the AHL and the 2017-18 Calder Cup champion, likely is interested in Wilson, who can add leadership to theh team as he served as captain of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team last season. He will likely get a chance to challenge for a role on the Maple Leafs’ fourth line where he will have to beat out a number of solid players, including Jason Spezza, Nick Shore, Nic Petan, Kenny Agostino, and Frederik Gauthier.
Minor Transactions: 07/18/19
As July marches on and we get closer to arbitration hearings and contract holdouts, teams continue to fill our their organizational depth charts. Here are some minor moves from around the league:
- The Toronto Marlies continue to add more depth, signing Ryan Johnston and Michael Kapla to AHL contracts. Kapla spent last season with the Binghamton Devils and Iowa Wild, recording 24 points in 66 games. The defenseman is a former Umass-Lowell captain that played five games in the NHL during the 2016-17 season. Johnston meanwhile spent the last two seasons in the SHL, but also has ten games of NHL experience under his belt.
- The Hershey Bears have signed Tariq Hammond to an AHL deal, bringing in another former Binghamton defenseman. The 25-year old played 43 games for the AHL Devils last season, recording three points. Hammond was part of the 2017 NCAA champion University of Denver squad alongside other NHL players like Troy Terry, Henrik Borgstrom, Dylan Gambrell and Will Butcher, and took over as captain the following season.
- The Hartford Wolf Pack have signed Ryan Dmowski to another AHL deal, keeping him in the organization after he joined them earlier this spring out of college. The 22-year old left winger had four points in ten games down the stretch for the Wolf Pack, and will likely be asked to play a bigger role in his first full professional season.
- Carolina has brought in some AHL depth, announcing the signings of wingers Hunter Shinkaruk and Colin Markison plus defenseman Derek Sheppard to AHL deals. Shinkaruk, a first-round pick of Vancouver back in 2013, had a disastrous season with Montreal’s farm team and was non-tendered last month. Meanwhile, Markison has posted back-to-back 27-point seasons with Texas of the AHL while Sheppard was quite productive at the ECHL last season with 40 points in 57 games.
Ottawa Senators Sign Michael Carcone
The Ottawa Senators have signed another player who spent much of last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. Michael Carcone has inked a two-year two-way deal with the Senators after coming over as part of the Nikita Zaitsev–Cody Ceci trade. Carcone was a restricted free agent, and will now have a $700K salary in the NHL.
Now 23, the undrafted Carcone has played three seasons in the AHL after signing with the Vancouver Canucks in 2016. Sent to Toronto in exchange for Josh Leivo partway through the 2018-19 season, he ended up as a key offensive piece for the Toronto Marlies on another long Calder Cup playoff run. Carcone set career-highs with 20 goals and 44 points in the regular season, before adding ten more in 13 playoff contests.
A late-bloomer that only played two seasons in the QMJHL, Carcone will serve as forward depth for the Senators and another name to throw into the roster battles this fall. Ottawa’s lineup is wide open for players like this to make a name for themselves, and it seems likely that Carcone will get to make his NHL debut at some point over the duration of this two-year deal. At the very least he’ll be a solid addition for the Belleville Senators next season.
Eastern Notes: Leddy, Ristolainen, Carcone, Shalagin
The New York Islanders have made quite a few moves this offseason, re-signing Anders Lee, Jordan Eberle and Brock Nelson as well as adding goaltender Semyon Varlamov to their franchise, but the team may not be done yet.
Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post mentions that the team may seriously consider trading defenseman Nick Leddy later this offseason. The 28-year-old Leddy has three years on his contract at $5.5MM per season and with several teams in need of help for a top-four blueliner, the team might be willing to unload him if they can add more offensive talent, especially with prospects Noah Dobson and Bode Wilde not far from arriving in New York.
- In a roundtable discussion on what the chances are that the Tampa Bay Lightning might acquire Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) writes that while the Lightning has had interest in him in the past, the only way the team would be interested in acquiring him now would be if it were an upgrade and with no obvious trade candidates on their defense, a deal between Buffalo and Tampa Bay seems unlikely. Throw in the fact the team still has to sign restricted free agent Brayden Point to and the chances of acquiring Risolainen seems unlikely.
- There were many moving parts two week ago when the Ottawa Senators acquired Nikita Zaitsev from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Cody Ceci. The Senators acquired forward Connor Brown, but also picked up forward Michael Carcone as part of the deal, a 23-year-old restricted free agent who has battled his way through three AHL seasons and might be ready for a bottom-line role with the Senators now that the team acquired him. The Athletic’s Chris Stevenson reports that he hears that the Senators and Carcone are close to a new deal and could be a name to watch at training camp this fall. The Vancouver Canucks were received quite a bit of interest from Carcone at the trade deadline by both Toronto and Ottawa. He ended up going to Toronto in the Josh Leivo trade, but has since been traded again.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning look to be bringing one of their 2019 draftees over to North America sooner than they had expected as a Russian website, spartak.ru (translation required), reports that Mikhail Shalagin, the team’s 2019 seventh-round pick, is expected to play in the Tampa Bay’s system, presumably with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL, although nothing has come from the Lightning yet and it’s unknown whether the team will offer him an entry-level deal right away or offer him an AHL deal. The 6-foot-4, 185-pound forward scored 48 goals in the MHL and was the MVP of the league last year.
Tobias Bjornfot Signs Entry-Level Deal With Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings announced they have signed defenseman Tobias Bjornfot to a three-year, entry-level contract. He was one of the Kings two first-round picks in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, acquired in the Jake Muzzin trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Bjornfot was selected with the 22nd pick in the draft behind center Alex Turcotte (fifth overall). The Swedish blueliner spent the year with Djurgardens J20 of the SuperElit league in Sweden where he played 39 games, scoring 11 goals and 22 points. He also debuted in the SHL as he made seven appearances there, going scoreless. Bjornfot also helped Sweden to a bronze medal at the U18 World Junior Championships.
The 18-year-old is considered to be an excellent skater with a great two-way game, who has the ability to run a power play and has a heavy slapshot, but prefers a slapshot that he uses most often in games. While he isn’t overly tall at 6-foot, he does have some bulk as he already weighs in at 205 pounds and is capable of taking hits.
Poll: Is Tyson Barrie A Significant Upgrade Over Jake Gardiner?
While most people look at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ acquisition of Tyson Barrie as a major plus when the team picked up the lead defenseman and Alex Kerfoot for Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosen on July 1, there are other analytics experts who suggest that the addition of Barrie isn’t much, if any improvements over Jake Gardiner, who the team has allowed to walk away in free agency.
Of course, Barrie looks like an impressive upgrade, especially when you look at his offensive numbers. Barrie scored 14 goals and 59 points last season and posted 57 points the previous year, giving Toronto another top-notch offensive defenseman next to Morgan Rielly. Gardiner was a second-pairing defenseman whose offense disappeared last year with 30 points, even though he posted 52 points the previous season. However, only one player, Barrie or Rielly, can get those first-line power play minutes and there is no guarantee that Barrie will be able to pry those minutes away from Rielly next season, suggesting that Barrie’s number’s could drop quite a bit. In fact, two goals and 23 assists came off the power play last season where Barrie was the team’s quarterback of the first power play unit.
However, analytics suggest that Gardiner, despite his struggles might prove to be a better blueliner, especially defensively. While Toronto is an offensive juggernaut, Gardiner still had a plus-19 rating in plus-minus, while there are some questions about how good a defender Barrie is. In Colorado, Barrie posted a minus-3 on an Avalanche squad that made the playoffs last season and a minus-19 the previous year, when they were a playoff team as well. While plus-minus might be considered to be an unreliable fact, Gardiner has been solid for Toronto despite the fact receiving Toronto fans wrath for years. He has averaged over 21:48 of ATOI over the past three years and in those three years ranks 23rd in the league in points with 125. In goals above replacement (GAR), which is an all-encompassing stat to evaluate skaters, Gardiner ranked 17th among defenseman last year and fifth in the league at even strength, according to evolving-hockey.com. Barrie ranked 50th last season and 66th at even strength.
However, Gardiner’s value seems to have dropped. Despite being considered one of the top defensive free agents on the unrestricted free agent market, Gardiner remains unsigned with rumors he’s seeking $7MM per season. While a change in scenery might have been needed for Gardiner, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Barrie will be the better player.
So, is Barrie a significant upgrade over Gardiner?
Is Tyson Barrie a significant upgrade over Jake Gardiner?
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No. Jake Gardiner wasn't that bad. 52% (898)
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Yes. Major upgrade. 48% (837)
Total votes: 1,735
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Pacific Notes: Kadri, Wright, Lindholm, Doughty
Before the Colorado Avalanche acquired Nazem Kadri from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a big deal involving Tyson Barrie, the Calgary Flames were close to acquiring the veteran center. However, Kadri refused to waive his 10-team no-trade clause that would have sent him in a deal that would have included defenseman T.J. Brodie.
The Calgary Sun’s Wes Gilbertson writes that Kadri did admit that he rejected the deal to Calgary in hopes of convincing the Maple Leafs that he wanted to stay with the team.
“What happened is they had a deal in place and they wanted me to move my no-trade clause,” Kadri explained. “Obviously, for me, it was no disrespect to Calgary or the Flames organization — I love their team and I love the direction they’re headed. I just figured that had I declined, I would have had a better opportunity of being a Maple Leaf next year, and that’s really what it came down to. “I wanted to play for the Leafs next year. I wanted to be a part of that. In declining that trade, I had aspirations of being a Leaf, and we know clearly that didn’t happen.”
Instead he did get traded to Colorado and now will take over as the team’s second-line center in hopes of developing a powerful secondary scoring line after their top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog.
- The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman (subscription required) delves into the drafting success of the Edmonton Oilers’ new director of amateur scouting, Tyler Wright, noting that while the long-time executive with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings has had lukewarm success drafting in the first round, he has been successful in the later rounds of drafts, having nabbed several key players late in the draft, including Josh Anderson, Boone Jenner, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Filip Hronek and could provide value for Edmonton who hasn’t had as much luck later in the draft.
- In a mailbag piece, The Athletic’s Eric Stephens (subscription required) writes that while defenseman Hampus Lindholm is a solid top-pairing defenseman, his offense still hasn’t come around and at age 25, time is running out. The blueliner posted 34 points in his second season back in the 2014-15 season and hasn’t reached that target since then. However, Stephens writes that Lindholm was never a big fan of Randy Carlyle‘s system and could thrive under new head coach Dallas Eakins and show off some more offense, potentially becoming a regular at 40 points.
- Looking back at the recent history of signings by the Los Angeles Kings, The Athletic’s Lisa Dillman (subscription required) looks at the best and worst deals handed out since 2009. Unfortunately for the Kings, the top bad contract is only kicking in this year as the eight-year, $88MM contract that star defenseman Drew Doughty signed a year ago is about to kick in at age 29. After a down season last year, the 29-year-old blueliner will be getting paid $11MM until he turns 37 years old. Not a good sign if people think that before he’s even started getting paid.