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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.

    [SOURCE LINK]

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.

SHL’s Malmö Redhawks Sign Topi Niemelä

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The Malmö Redhawks of the Swedish Hockey League have agreed to a deal with defenseman Topi Niemelä for the 2025-26 season, according to a team announcement. Niemelä, a member of the Maple Leafs organization and a pending restricted free agent, can have his signing rights retained by Toronto until July 2029 if they tender him a qualifying offer.

All of Niemelä’s time with Toronto was spent at the AHL level, where he posted an 11-52–63 scoring line and a minus-eight rating over 135 appearances for the Marlies. That’s decent offensive production but not quite the pop they hoped for from the 6’0″ righty when they signed him to his entry-level contract in May 2022 and brought him over to North America near the end of the following season. Niemelä fell out of a regular role with the Marlies at points this past season, although he did still finish second among Marlies defensemen in scoring and played both of their postseason games in a first-round loss to Cleveland.

A third-round pick for the Leafs in the 2020 draft, there was hope he could outperform his draft slot when he erupted for a 10-goal, 32-point season in 48 games with Liiga’s Kärpät, taking a huge step forward in the top league in his native Finland in his age-19 season. Nonetheless, he had just 18 points in 58 games for Kärpät when Toronto loaned him back there the following season before bringing him over to the AHL.

After that breakout season, most had Niemelä tabbed as the top defense prospect in a Maple Leafs pool without many intriguing names to offer. He’s since been surpassed by shutdown righty Ben Danford, their first-round selection in 2024.

It remains to be seen if Niemelä will ever play for the Maple Leafs, but it stands to reason they’ll at least opt to retain his signing rights if and when he decides to return to North America given their lack of young organizational depth at the position. The 23-year-old will now look to regain some offensive confidence overseas in Malmö, where he joins a blue line headlined by former Islanders depth piece Robin Salo.

Offseason Checklist: Toronto Maple Leafs

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The offseason has arrived with the draft and free agency fast approaching.  Accordingly, it’s time to look at what each team needs to accomplish this summer.  Next up is a look at Toronto.

The Maple Leafs’ consistent run of strong regular-season play continued in 2024-25 with an 108-point season and their first division title in an 82-game season since 2000. While they did advance further in the postseason than in 22 years, they blew a 2-0 series lead in the second round against the eventual champion Panthers and failed to make their first Eastern Conference Final of the Auston Matthews era. General manager Brad Treliving now faces the most pivotal offseason in Toronto in years with multiple high-profile pending free agents and significant spending flexibility.

Identify Marner Replacements

Mitch Marner was the team’s third-highest-paid player at a $10.9MM cap hit as he completed the seven-year deal he signed as an RFA in 2019. He was easily set to become Toronto’s second-most or even highest-paid player ahead of Matthews this summer – that is, if he stayed with the Leafs instead of testing the open market. That won’t be the case, and the Leafs must now change from devoting resources to a Marner extension to identifying who can most effectively replace his production and add depth to the forward lineup.

Treliving is not finding a direct replacement for Marner’s 100-plus points; that much is certain. The trade-off for losing one of the league’s premier playmaking wingers will be the freedom of cap space re-allocation to improve the club’s depth lines while putting more trust in Matthews to anchor the top one. There will be at least two wingers acquired in Marner’s stead, either via trade or free agency. They already struck out on one – they were pretty interested in Mason Marchment before the Stars traded him to the Kraken last week.

They haven’t been heavily linked to the consensus No. 2 and No. 3 wingers on the market behind Marner this summer in Nikolaj Ehlers and Brock Boeser. There has, however, been heavy speculation about a fit between them and veteran Brad Marchand. Coming off a second-place finish in Conn Smythe Trophy voting after rattling off 20 points in 23 games in Florida’s Stanley Cup win, the Leafs are in a better position to give him a lucrative mid-term deal compared to most other contenders and would give him the opportunity to play at home in Canada for the first timem in his 13-year career. Even at his highest feasible price point, they’d still have another $2.5MM to $3MM to spend on a middle-six winger to complement names like William Nylander and Max Domi while presumably slotting Marchand in Marner’s slot alongside Matthews and Matthew Knies (more on him later).

After striking out on a player with upward top-nine mobility at a cheap price point in Marchment, that appears to be a path Treliving is heavily considering. Former 35-goal man Andrew Mangiapane is heading to the market after a tough season with the Capitals and should be available around that aforementioned price point. Toronto is among the teams reportedly showing a keen interest in signing him when free agency opens on July 1.

Ramp Up Knies, Tavares Talks

The more cost certainty they have, the more active the Maple Leafs can be in achieving checklist item No. 1 in nine days. Right now, they have very little. Their top RFA, Knies, and their top UFA with a chance of extending/returning, center John Tavares, remain without new deals. It’s not the best omen. The tone around the Leafs and Knies’ negotiations has been overwhelmingly positive from the outset, with reporting last month indicating neither side was worried about an offer-sheet threat and that there was a mutual understanding of what the final deal would end up looking like. There seemingly hasn’t been any notable progress in talks since that point, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said Friday.

There’s similarly no extension imminent with Tavares, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic relayed in the last couple of days. That’s the more concerning bit of news. An offer sheet is always a possibility for Knies, but he at least remains under team control past July 1, and he has to actually sign the offer sheet for it to be of any significance. Tavares hitting the open market and leaving without a quick succession plan in place could result in disaster down the middle without a ton of suitable 2C replacements on the open market, particularly after Matt Duchene recently extended with the Stars on a quite team-friendly pact.

The act of re-signing Tavares frees up cap space, not limits it. His next deal won’t come anywhere close to his expiring $11MM cap hit, cementing both a discount at the center position for Toronto behind Matthews and added cost certainty to firm up the roster around the edges behind whatever the largest open-market splash they’re able to make ends up being.

There’s also the stipulation that while losing Marner’s point production without being able to get close to reconstructing it by committee would be tough to swallow, losing Tavares’ output in the same manner would be disastrous. While the 34-year-old may not have been fully worth the cap space he was taking up at the end of his deal, he was still an incredibly high-end producer last season. His 38 goals in 75 games were 12th in the league and marked his second-best goal-scoring season as a Leaf. He was also top-40 in the league in points per game at 0.99. Aside from veteran stopgap Mikael Granlund, there’s no UFA center with that kind of output as his ceiling. Among trade options, young Wild pivot Marco Rossi would be the only one fitting that bill, but Toronto wouldn’t be willing to part with the NHL-ready assets Minnesota wants in return, considering their existing issues navigating roster turnover this summer.

Explore Cap-Clearing Trade

Despite the lack of easily attainable potential replacements for their pending free agents, the Leafs at least have nearly $26MM in spending flexibility at the start of free agency to remove that as an immediately limiting factor. They could still open up their window of options even wider and prevent an August/September cap crunch by shedding a low-value contract now. They don’t have many, but there are a few among their depth forwards. Veteran winger Calle Järnkrok is entering the final year of his contract at a $2.1MM cap hit and has minimal trade protection with a 10-team no-trade list. He could be well-positioned to land them a legitimate return at that price point, but he could also be a cost-effective rebound candidate for them, too. Injuries limited him to just 19 regular-season games last year and he was underwhelming in the playoffs, but he’s averaged 38 points per 82 games since signing in Toronto three years ago.

A more desirable deal to move if possible would be David Kämpf, making $2.4MM against the cap through 2026-27 with a 10-team no-trade list that lapses in the summer of 2026. That’s notable as a team acquiring Kämpf now could flip him again next season without any contractual obstacle. He was an increasingly frequent healthy scratch last year, had 13 points and a minus-one rating in 59 games, and saw his ice time dip to a career-low 12:24 per game when dressed. He’s a true redundancy with a cheaper, higher-ceiling offensive option in the mix next year in Scott Laughton after being acquired from the Flyers at the trade deadline.

There’s also the matter of veteran enforcer Ryan Reaves, who remains under contract at a $1.35MM cap hit. They can reduce that to just $200K by waiving him and burying him in the minors like they did for the home stretch last year. They’ll presumably do that again if he’s still on the books, but if they can make the deal someone else’s problem for a low-round draft pick, they’ll presumably explore that to open up as much spending flexibility as possible.

Upgrade Scoring Depth

Any cap savings created by Toronto’s turnover this summer outside of direct replacements or new deals for pending UFAs should be staying with the forward group. There are a few reasons for this. For one, there’s little to no maneuverability (or motivation) to alter the personnel anywhere else on the roster. The Leafs have one of the league’s most cost-effective goaltending tandems, and their veteran defense corps shone bright under head coach Craig Berube last season. Even if they wanted to make a change, they already have nine defenders signed to one-way deals for next season, most with significant trade protection.

The secondary roster construction goal for Treliving this summer needs to be helping the club rediscover its offensive ceiling. Their 3.26 goals per game was still top 10 in the league in 2024-25, but their lowest output since the 2016-17 campaign nonetheless. While they had six 20-goal scorers last year, the dropoff after them was steep, and only eight players hit the 30-point mark.

In the past couple of years, these types of pickups have needed to wait until closer to training camp, as was the case with Steven Lorentz and Max Pacioretty in 2024. This offseason, Treliving has the spending flexibility up front to get cheap depth pickups out of the way early, but he might be better served to wait a couple of weeks for prices to come down.

Image courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images.

Maple Leafs, Kraken To Pursue Andrew Mangiapane

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The 2025 free agent market is beginning to wear thin. That could push teams to take aggressive runs at the few impactful lineup pieces available. One name already generating interest is Washington Capitals winger Andrew Mangiapane, who both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Seattle Kraken are expected to pursue if and when he reaches the open market, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The rumor was later confirmed from a Leafs perspective by Sporstnet’s Nick Alberga, who points out Mangiapane’s past relationship with Leafs general manager Brad Treliving.

The winner of the growing Mangiapane sweepstakes will be landing a very interesting player. Mangiapane has played far above his 5-foot-10 frame for much of the last seven seasons. He earned his place in the league with a pair of 32-point performances in 2019-20 and 2020-21, then broke out in a big way with 35 goals and 55 points in 82 games of the 2021-22 season. Even as he fell back to Earth in the wake of a career-year, Mangiapane continued to post strong numbers, reaching or crossing the 40-point mark in both 2022-23 and 2023-24.

All five of Mangiapane’s strong scoring seasons came in a Calgary Flames jersey. He seemed to have secured a career role in the team’s middle-six, but that thought was extinguished when Mangiapane was traded to the Washington Capitals for a 2025 second-round pick last summer. The move instantly sparked questions of if and how Mangiapane could maintain his scoring with a new club. Those concerns were warranted when he posted just 28 points, split evenly, through 81 games of Washington’s season this year. He fell to a clear bottom-six role that continued on through the postseason, when he scored two points in 10 games.

But such a drop-off in scoring could indicate a return to admirable play could come with the a change of scenery. Mangiapane is one of the best value draft picks in Treliving’s managerial career, having gone from a sixth-round selection in 2015 to nearly-500 games in the NHL a decade later. That connection could make a move to the Toronto Maple Leafs – who are desperately in need of a scoring punch down their left-wing side – a natural next step. If not the Leafs, Mangiapane could also move to Seattle, who already have a track record of supporting his undersized, shoot-first style.

Mangiapane carried a lofty, $5.8MM cap hit through the last three years on his last deal. That mark is likely far north of what he’s set to earn this summer, but it could be enough to pull his price tag higher than expected – especially if a bidding war begins. Mangiapane’s final deal will be interesting to follow, and could precede the role he earns in his next team’s top-nine.

Marner Open To Short-Term Deal, Tavares Talks Not Close Yet

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As the top pending unrestricted free agent, winger Mitch Marner will have a chance to choose between a bunch of contract options.  According to Pierre LeBrun in his latest post for The Athletic (subscription link), a couple of teams believe that Marner is considering signing just a two-year deal this summer with the hopes of getting a long-term contract in place in 2027 when the Upper Limit of the salary cap is projected to be around $113MM at that time.  The value of the two-year pact would still likely surpass that of Mikko Rantanen’s AAV ($12MM) with Dallas, the new benchmark for a contract given to a winger.  The 28-year-old had 27 goals and 75 assists in 81 games this season for the Maple Leafs while adding 13 points in 13 playoff contests.

  • The Maple Leafs and center John Tavares are still not close on a new contract. Tavares has made it known that his desire is to remain with Toronto while the Leafs are hoping that he’ll leave some money on the table to do so.  However, he’s the top middleman in a thinning UFA group at that position and is coming off a 38-goal, 74-point season.  Realistically, he could push for $7.5MM or more on a multi-year deal if he gets to July 1st.  Speculatively, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Toronto offering a long-term deal at a lower rate per season to maximize their cap flexibility this summer.

Free Agent Focus: Toronto Maple Leafs

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Free agency is now less than two weeks away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July, while many teams also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Maple Leafs.

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Mitch Marner – It was a career year for the 28-year-old who reached the 100-point mark for the first time after coming up just short a couple of times recently.  He was second on the Maple Leafs in points in the playoffs.  And despite all that, it’s widely expected that he will reach the open market with both sides believed to be interested in a fresh start.  Players of Marner’s caliber rarely get to unrestricted free agency and the timing couldn’t be better with the big jump in the salary cap meaning that more teams have more cap flexibility.  As a result, while Mikko Rantanen recently set the NHL record for the highest AAV ($12MM) given to a winger, Marner is expected to eclipse that with speculation that multiple teams are ready to offer $14MM or more.  If he goes to free agency, he’ll be capped at seven years but if he and Toronto are open to it, a sign-and-trade by the end of June could allow him to get an eighth year and net the Maple Leafs a small return.

F John Tavares – Tavares eschewed pricier offers seven years ago in free agency to sign with his hometown team.  The seven-year, $77MM deal wound up aging pretty well as he had 493 points in 515 games with the Maple Leafs, being a high-end second option behind Auston Matthews.  Notably, he is coming off a particularly strong season that saw him notch 38 goals and 36 assists in 75 games.  His 74 points put him second among pending UFAs behind Marner.  While he’ll turn 35 in training camp, Tavares is well-positioned to land a multi-year deal at a price tag around the $7.5MM per season that Brock Nelson received to stay in Colorado since he’s the top center in a market that’s getting thinner in a hurry.  However, for the Maple Leafs to have enough cap room to truly shake up their roster, it’s reasonable to think they’ll be asking for him to leave some money on the table once again.

F Max Pacioretty – While it took until the eve of training camp to secure a deal last year, Pacioretty wound up being a serviceable depth piece for the Maple Leafs when healthy and then had a solid playoff showing with eight points in 11 games.  However, his days of being an every-game regular are likely over which will keep the contract offers closer to the $1MM mark in terms of base salary.  However, as long as he signs a one-year pact (which is the likeliest outcome at this stage of his career), he is eligible for performance incentives which is what he had in his deal this season which could push the total potential compensation more toward the $2MM range if a decent market for his services develops.

F Steven Lorentz – After playing a limited role with Florida in 2023-24, Lorentz became pretty much an every-game regular for Toronto this season, chipping in with 19 points in 80 games, matching those numbers from two years ago.  In doing so, he went from someone whose salary ceiling was at or near the league minimum to someone who should be able to surpass the $1MM mark next month on potentially a multi-year deal.

Other UFAs: F Nick Abruzzese, D Jani Hakanpaa, D Nicolas Mattinen (signed in Germany), D Dakota Mermis, G Matt Murray, F Alex Nylander, F Alex Steeves

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Matthew Knies – After a solid rookie season in 2023-24, Knies found another gear this season, notching 29 goals and 29 assists in 78 games while cementing a spot for himself on Toronto’s top line.  In doing so, he has become one of the top pending RFAs.  He’s the type of player the Maple Leafs would undoubtedly like to lock up on a long-term deal that buys some extra seasons of club control.  However, doing so could push the price tag around $8MM per season which would cut into their spending flexibility to reshape their roster.  As a result, it’s possible that the two sides look at a shorter-term bridge agreement.  The 22-year-old has five RFA-eligible years left so a bridge deal could be for two or three years with a price tag closer to the $4.5MM area, giving GM Brad Treliving more short-term flexibility while setting Knies up to cash in down the road when he’ll be closer to unrestricted free agency and have arbitration eligibility.

F Nick Robertson – A speculative trade candidate last year following his trade request, not a whole lot has changed since then.  The 23-year-old did collect a career-best 15 goals this season but once again failed to secure a full-time spot in the lineup and played just three times in the playoffs.  Accordingly, it’s believed that he’d still prefer a change of scenery.  Owed a qualifying offer of just under $919K, Robertson could get a bit more than that thanks to scoring 29 goals in 125 games over the last two seasons combined thanks to his arbitration eligibility.  That makes him a potential non-tender candidate if a new deal – with Toronto or elsewhere – can’t be reached by the end of the month as it’s unlikely a team will want to give him a chance to go to a hearing.

F Pontus Holmberg – Holmberg has worked his way up from being a depth player in the minors to one who has played in 122 NHL games over the last two seasons while also suiting up in all but one playoff game this spring.  His defensive game and positional versatility make him a useful depth player to have.  He’s owed a qualifying offer of just over $866K but his arbitration eligibility could give him a shot at doubling that, putting him into the same sphere as Robertson where the price tag could get a bit too high for a player who projects to be near the bottom of the lineup.

Other RFAs: G Dennis Hildeby, F Roni Hirvonen (signed in Finland), D Mikko Kokkonen, F Reese Johnson, D Topi Niemela, F Cedric Pare, D William Villeneuve

Projected Cap Space

The Maple Leafs are set to enter the summer with around $25.7MM in cap room, one of the larger amounts around the NHL.  It should be more than enough to dissuade an offer sheet for Knies, as well.  Of course, a lot of that stems from two of their top-four-paid players getting set to hit the open market as the top players at their respective positions.  The good news is that Treliving now has plenty of flexibility to work with but he also now has two significant holes to fill in his lineup and a pricey second contract for Knies to contend with.  But for the first time in a while, Toronto could look considerably different come October.

Photos courtesy of Nick Turchiaro (Marner) and Kim Klement Neitzel (Knies)-Imagn Images.  Contract info courtesy of PuckPedia.

Conflicting Reports On Negotiations Between Maple Leafs, Matthew Knies

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  • With a boatload of cap space, the Toronto Maple Leafs need not worry about a Matthew Knies offer sheet this summer. Still, they will want to sign the deal soon to understand their financial flexibility during the summer months. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports that there is no consensus on the progress of the negotiations. One side believes a deal is close, while the other side indicates that it is not. Unfortunately, he did not specify which side holds each perspective. Regardless, it appears that the final deal should fall in the three-to-five-year range.

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