- There were some spotty rumors popping up over the past few days about a potential buyout for the Toronto Maple Leafs – namely, defenseman T.J. Brodie. The Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan relayed a report from a source today, though, that said there’s “no truth” Toronto and new general manager Brad Treliving are considering anything of the sort. Brodie, under contract at $5MM through next season, has been the team’s most consistent defensive specialist over the life of his deal but seemed a step out of place at times during the team’s playoff run this season.
Maple Leafs Rumors
Maple Leafs Notes: Assistant Coach, Schenn, O’Reilly
The Toronto Maple Leafs are reportedly mulling over several assistant coaches as they look to fill out their coaching staff. While head coach Sheldon Keefe’s future is still up in the air it does appear that he will return for this season. One coach that isn’t returning is assistant coach Spencer Carbery who already accepted the head coaching job with the Washington Capitals. Now Brad Treliving and company are tasked with filling that hole in their staff. Jeff Marek speculated today on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that he’s heard Toronto have shown interest in Mitch Love, Karl Taylor, and Todd Nelson.
Love is likely the biggest name of the three as he is the head coach of the Calgary Wranglers and has had that team play like a well-oiled machine the past two seasons posting a record of 96-33-8-3. The Wranglers are the AHL affiliate to the Calgary Flames which will lead to speculation about a connection with Treliving who of course came over from Calgary just a few weeks ago.
Taylor is the current head coach of the Nashville Predators AHL affiliate in Milwaukee and has been there for five seasons posting a record of 157-90-29-11. He’s struggled to get the Admirals over the hump as they have advanced to the second round just one in his five-year run with the club. Taylor has also coached in the WHL, ECHL and AHL during his 16-year coaching career.
Nelson is the most experienced of the three names that Marek mentioned as he has been coaching for over 20 years in the UHL, AHL and NHL. He was an assistant coach for four years in Dallas before taking over the Hershey Bears this season. Nelson has the club one win away from the AHL Calder Trophy and may have a lot of NHL opportunities thrown his way this summer.
In other evening notes:
- Elliotte Friedman spoke today on CHEK TV’s Donnie and Dhali show saying that he doesn’t believe the Toronto Maple Leafs and Luke Schenn are very close on a contract extension for the pending unrestricted free agent. Friedman went on to state that the Maple Leafs would love to have the 33-year-old back but are looking at a salary around league minimum while Schenn is looking to cash in on his best offensive season in over a decade after he tied a career high by putting up 22 points in 70 games. Schenn has been playing under six figure deals for the past five seasons and might be looking at his last chance to get a contract with an annual value above $1MM per season.
- TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button said today on That’s Hockey that he believes Toronto Maple Leafs unrestricted free agent center Ryan O’Reilly should be able to fetch a three-year contract. O’Reilly can no longer drive his own line but is still a solid two-way option for a team looking for help in the middle. O’Reilly dealt with injuries this past season but still put up 16 goals and 14 assists in 53 games. Button’s three-year projection matches Daily Faceoffs contract projection from last month when Frank Seravalli projected a three-year contract for O’Reilly at a cap hit of $5.5MM. If that is the number, it would likely price O’Reilly out of Toronto given that the cap constraints and needs that Toronto will have this summer.
Offseason Checklist: Toronto Maple Leafs
The offseason is now fully underway after Vegas took home the Stanley Cup which means that it’s time to examine what each team will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Toronto.
It was another successful regular season for the Maple Leafs who finished in the bottom five in goals allowed while locking down the second seed in a tough Atlantic Division. They even exorcised their first-round playoff demon, knocking out Tampa Bay. However, that momentum was sapped quickly as Florida quickly dispatched them in the second round. Now, after a peculiar sequence of events that resulted in Brad Treliving taking over as GM, he’s now tasked with deciding whether to make a significant core shakeup or to keep tinkering with the secondary group. Early suggestions are that it could be the latter so their checklist is structured accordingly.
Coaching Hires
At this point, it seems like Sheldon Keefe is going to remain behind the bench following a recent report that he and Treliving are actively working on finding a replacement for assistant coach Spencer Carbery who left to take over behind the bench in Washington. Keefe wouldn’t be involved in those talks if he wasn’t sticking around. Based on that assumption, the only decision that Treliving needs to make around Keefe is whether he’s going to extend him now or have him enter next season on the final year of his contract.
Could that uncertainty help determine which way they go for Carbery’s replacement? They’ll be hiring for the top assistant role so will they look to another up-and-comer like Carbery was or a more experienced option that could step in if Treliving decides to make an in-season change? Either way, whoever they hire will need to have some power play pedigree with Carbery playing an important part in Toronto’s success with the man advantage over the last couple of seasons.
Additionally, Toronto needs to hire a new AHL staff after it was decided following their exit against Rochester in mid-May that head coach Greg Moore plus assistants A.J. MacLean and John Snowden. This isn’t something that necessarily has to be completed before July 1st but this is an organization that typically is active in minor league free agency. Having at least a head coach in place by then would help to avoid any uncertainty, especially with how quickly players sign within the first 24-48 hours after the market opens up.
Extension Talks
The Maple Leafs have two members of their ‘Core Four’ that are eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2024. Accordingly, they’re eligible to sign contract extensions as of July 1st. Considering both Auston Matthews and William Nylander are set to land sizable raises, getting these done sooner than later would go a long way toward helping Treliving’s roster planning.
Matthews is coming off a quiet year by his standards but he still averaged well over a point per game while picking up 40 goals. Still not too shabby overall. Before that, the 25-year-old led the league in goals for two straight seasons, picking up the Hart Trophy for his efforts. He’s above average at the faceoff dot. He receives Selke votes annually as the best defensive forward. Basically, Matthews is a true number one center. There aren’t many at his level around the league and they get paid. At this point, the expectation is that he will set the new benchmark as the highest-paid player in the league, surpassing Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon ($12.6MM). The questions are how much will he pass MacKinnon by and for how long?
Matthews didn’t sign a max-term agreement coming off his entry-level contract and it’s reasonable to think he could try a similar approach here, working out a medium-term agreement that might keep the AAV slightly lower while setting him up for what would likely be another raise down the road where he could once again try to set the new AAV record.
While some have suggested that July 1st represents a key deadline in discussions, that isn’t really the case. At that point, Matthews picks up a full no-move clause and becomes harder to trade. But if preliminary talks between his camp and Treliving have gone well and it seems like a matter of when and not if he signs an extension, Matthews having the NMC doesn’t really move the needle much. It might not get done the first day possible but this should get done this summer.
As for Nylander, the 27-year-old followed up a career-best 80 points in 2021-22 with an even better showing this past season, tallying 40 goals for the first time along with 47 assists, also a new personal best. He’s in the top 15 for points by a winger over the last three seasons, cementing himself as a true top-line winger in the process. Others in that top 15 that have signed recently are Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov ($9MM), Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk ($9.5MM), and Columbus’ Johnny Gaudreau ($9.75MM). It’s safe to suggest that Nylander’s next contract should fall somewhere within that range, especially with the expectation that the cap will rise more next summer.
Can Toronto afford extensions for both players? That will be hard to do but it would also be very tough to part ways with one of those core pieces and maximize their value in return. With that in mind, it might be a situation where the Maple Leafs extend both and then try to figure out how to fit them in on the books for 2024-25 and beyond later on.
Add An Impact Defenseman
Despite the fact that Toronto was one of the stingier teams in the league in goals allowed, there’s a well-defined hole on the back end to try to fill. At the moment, the Maple Leafs have six blueliners under contract already for next season which isn’t bad. However, three of them have question marks.
Mark Giordano was solid for most of the season but started to wear down toward the end and into the playoffs. He’ll be 40 on opening night and is likely best utilized on the third pairing next season. Timothy Liljegren hasn’t spent a lot of time in the top four, nor has Conor Timmins who has all of 66 games under his belt, most of which came with limited ice time. It’s believed they’d like to bring Luke Schenn back but even he’s more of a role piece, not an impact one.
Morgan Rielly, T.J. Brodie, and Jake McCabe are a decent core group in their top four but there is a definite need to add someone that can play 20 minutes a game and kill penalties. Basically, fill the role that Jake Muzzin was supposed to but with there being questions about his playing future, they can’t rely on hoping that he’s able to come back in prime form (if he’s able to come back at all). In a perfect world, that player would be a right-shot blueliner but those are always in short supply and high demand. Either way, a stable second-pairing defender would go a long way toward helping keep this team battling for the top of the division.
Goaltending Decisions
Last summer, former GM Kyle Dubas opted to make a pair of moves to overhaul Toronto’s goaltending. One worked well, the other not so much. Treliving now faces decisions on what to do with both of those netminders.
First, the good. Ilya Samsonov was somewhat surprisingly non-tendered by Washington as they chose to go a different direction with Darcy Kuemper coming over in free agency. Samsonov wound up on a one-year, $1.8MM deal and became one of the better bargains in goal around the league. His market value now with a strong season under his belt starts to creep up into the $4.5MM to $5MM range. Giving him that price tag on a multi-year deal would shore up the goaltending position for a few seasons but it would also cut into Treliving’s spending options for this summer.
Then there’s Matt Murray. He had some good moments and some bad ones but most of all, he had plenty of times when he was injured. By the time he was cleared to return for the playoffs, he was relegated to third-string duty behind Joseph Woll. He has one year left on his contract with Toronto’s portion being $4.6785MM. Having him and Samsonov (likely at a similar price tag) on the books is an option they probably can’t afford, especially with a now waiver-eligible Woll waiting in the wings on a contract that’s below the league minimum for the next two years.
Murray’s contract is one that won’t be easy to offload; it would require an incentive and the Maple Leafs don’t exactly have a surplus of draft picks and prospects at their disposal to help make that happen. Alternatively, they can choose to buy out the final year of Murray’s deal. Doing that would save $4MM on the books for next season. However, it would also add $2MM in dead cap space for 2024-25 at a time when they’ll need every penny to afford the new deals for Matthews and Nylander. The other option would be to bury him in the minors, a move that would save $1.15MM in space for next season with no cap charges for 2024-25.
With Samsonov, the choice is fairly simple – how long of a contract do they want to do? For Murray, it’s a much different case, deciding which of three bad options is the least painful route to take.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Unlikely Kerfoot And Holl Return Next Season
- It’s extremely unlikely that the Maple Leafs bring back forward Alexander Kerfoot or defenseman Justin Holl, reports Postmedia’s Lance Hornby. Kerfoot has been a capable secondary producer over his four seasons in Toronto but cap space will be at a premium and they wouldn’t be able to offer him the $3.5MM he made on his set-to-expire contract. As for Holl, he has shown himself to be a serviceable role player on the back end but it appears that Toronto is trying to re-sign Luke Schenn to fill that spot, pushing the 31-year-out out of a place in the lineup. Both players will hit the open market two Saturdays from today.
Latest On Auston Matthews, Sheldon Keefe
- Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on today’s 32 Thoughts podcast that the Toronto Maple Leafs’ preference with Auston Matthews is to get him locked into a max-term extension rather than a short-term payday. While Friedman couldn’t comment on the likelihood of that happening, he did say there’s been a heightened sense of urgency from both Matthews and the Leafs to get an extension done so the team can move on to other offseason business. Friedman said that after Matthews had a successful meeting with new general manager Brad Treliving in Arizona last week, he’s “even more confident” a deal will get done this summer.
Potential Toronto Maple Leafs UFA Targets
While the Toronto Maple Leafs did finally win a playoff series this season, a five-game loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers in the second round erased most of the team’s forward momentum and goodwill with the fanbase. Team president Brendan Shanahan and new general manager Brad Treliving seem content to keep the team’s core intact, so any answers from outside the organization are likely going to come through free agency.
Pittsburgh Penguins Hire Jason Spezza
The Pittsburgh Penguins named longtime NHLer and former Toronto Maple Leafs executive Jason Spezza an assistant general manager today, the team said in a release. Spezza joins former boss Kyle Dubas in the Pittsburgh front office.
Spezza served as a special assistant to Dubas for Toronto last season after retiring in 2022 but resigned from his post after Toronto announced they wouldn’t renew Dubas’ contract as general manager. Dubas then joined the Penguins as president of hockey operations earlier this month.
With Toronto, Spezza was involved with all aspects of hockey operations, including player personnel and development, minor league operations, and hockey research and development. Per the Penguins, his role there will be the same, reporting directly to Dubas and “[assisting] club management in all hockey operations departments.”
Dubas gave a statement on the hire of his colleague and friend:
After a decorated playing career, Jason fully immersed himself on the management side of the game learning all facets of hockey operations this past season while with Toronto. He showed tremendous work ethic, curiosity, and ability to build relationships throughout all departments at the team facility. His move from the roster to the front office staff also helped make the hockey operations department, coaching staff and playing roster a more cohesive and collaborative unit. We are thrilled to have Jason join the Pittsburgh Penguins today as he will add a great perspective to our Club, and we are excited to watch him reach his potential in management.
It’s worth noting Dubas isn’t Spezza’s only connection to the Penguins’ front office. He played one season each with player development staff member Matt Cullen in Ottawa and hockey operations advisor Trevor Daley in Dallas.
The Penguins are building their new front office in an unusual way, hiring associate members before solidifying a longer-term general manager. Dubas said during his initial media availability in Pittsburgh that he plans to serve as interim general manager through the offseason before making a permanent hire closer to the start of the 2023-24 campaign.
Based on the club’s verbiage, it seems that Spezza will still report directly to Dubas even after a GM hire is made.
Free Agent Focus: Toronto Maple Leafs
Free agency is less than a month 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 have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Key Restricted Free Agents
G Ilya Samsonov – The Maple Leafs took a significant risk on Samsonov, trusting him to potentially be their number-one goalie in a season where enormous pressure was placed on the team to finally go on an extended playoff run. Samsonov, now 26, had been exiled from the Washington Capitals after a disappointing 2021-22 season that included some major errors in some high-leverage moments.
Drafted 22nd overall at the 2015 draft, Samsonov was once believed to be the Capitals’ goalie of the future but his inconsistency and inability to seize the void left in Washington’s crease by Braden Holtby’s departure led to him being available for Toronto to snag as an unrestricted free agent.
The team signed him to a one-year $1.8MM deal and he ended up rewarding the team’s faith considerably. He led Toronto netminders with 42 games played and posted a strong .919 save percentage and 2.33 goals-against-average.
While his playoff performances as a Washington Capital were cause for significant concern, Samsonov’s play in the Maple Leafs’ first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning helped Toronto get the playoff series win they’d been long searching for. While he didn’t quite play up to par against the Florida Panthers (like the rest of his team, to be fair) and had his series end early due to injury, his 2022-23 season could be seen as serving as a major turning point for his career and a moment where he has resurrected his reputation as an up-and-coming netminder.
He’s earned himself a solid pay raise from his $1.8MM deal, but since he has a relatively inconsistent track record he might not be the safest long-term investment.
As for his future in Toronto, there are some questions to answer. The general manager that signed him, Kyle Dubas, is no longer with the organization and the new general manager, Brad Treliving, is coming from a team that has an established veteran netminder in Jacob Markstrom. Might Toronto prefer to add a proven veteran in their crease? And if so, is there going to be enough cap space to re-sign Samsonov to the type of contract his play has merited?
F Nick Abruzzese – With such a sizeable portion of the Maple Leafs’ salary cap space set aside to pay for the team’s core of star players, Toronto will need cheap, energetic, competent players to fill spots lower in their lineup. Abruzzese, 24, fits that profile after a strong first season as a full-time pro.
He scored 16 goals and 48 points in 69 AHL games for the Toronto Marlies and pitched in two assists in his two games of NHL action. With no proven NHL track record to speak of he won’t receive a significant raise from the $850k he earned last season, and as a result, could be in prime position to seize a depth role in Toronto.
Other RFAs: F Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, F Pontus Holmberg, D Victor Mete, D Mac Hollowell, D Filip Kral
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
F Ryan O’Reilly – The centerpiece acquisition of former GM Kyle Dubas’ flurry of trade deadline moves, O’Reilly looks poised to depart Toronto having improved his leaguewide standing to a considerable degree. In the final stretch of his tenure as a St. Louis Blue, the 2018-19 Selke and Conn Smythe Trophy winner’s significantly declined offensive production was the primary story surrounding his play.
By the time of the trade he had managed only 19 points in 40 games, a 39-point 82-game pace.
That’s a steep decline from the 58 points in 78 games he posted last year, and there was concern that at 32 years old O’Reilly was exiting his prime and was beginning a career-altering decline in form. Then O’Reilly landed in Toronto and he turned that narrative around, managing 11 points in 13 regular-season games and nine points in 11 playoff games.
His heroics at important moments, including a crucial game-tying goal in Game Three against Tampa Bay and two assists in the team’s stunning Game Four comeback showed everyone that O’Reilly still has gas left in the tank.
But as a result, he likely priced himself out of Toronto with his playoff heroics. He’ll be among the top centers available in what is a relatively thin free agent class down the middle and should receive contract offers that exceed what the Maple Leafs are in a position to offer him.
F Michael Bunting – While O’Reilly’s playoff performance changed the narrative around him for the better, the playoffs were not as kind to Bunting, 27. Bunting only managed to find the scoresheet twice in the playoffs despite scoring 23 goals and 49 points in the regular season.
His suspension due to a vicious hit to the head he laid on Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak earned Bunting some scathing criticism, and it left many wondering if he’d played his way out of Toronto, rather than priced his way out as someone such as Zach Hyman had.
Bunting remains a valuable winger who scored 63 points as a 26-year-old NHL rookie, but those questions that sprung up during the playoffs will linger as he considers offers on the open market. Is it possible that Toronto decides they can’t afford to let him walk?
Absolutely, but it feels like the team is headed in a different direction, especially with Matthew Knies penciled into his spot in the team’s top-six at what is likely to be a significantly cheaper price than the cap hit Bunting has earned.
F Alexander Kerfoot – While Kerfoot’s status as a focal point of Toronto’s return from trading Nazem Kadri to the Colorado Avalanche might leave a sour taste in the mouths of the Maple Leafs faithful, it isn’t exactly fair to judge Kerfoot against Kadri and the things he achieved in Colorado.
Kerfoot never had the breakout season in Toronto like the one Kadri had in Colorado, but Kerfoot nonetheless had his moments as a Maple Leaf. He scored 51 points in 2021-22 and was the second-highest-scoring Maple Leaf during the team’s infamous 2021 playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens, putting together a six-point performance that exceeded the production of stars such as Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Morgan Reilly.
He’s a quality third-line forward with the versatility to either play center or along the wings, and he has also been a consistent presence on one of Toronto’s penalty-killing units. There are far worse players to staff a middle-six with than Kerfoot, but after he only managed two points in eleven playoff games it’s possible Toronto will look in a different direction for that area of their lineup.
F David Kampf – Kampf took a step forward after joining Toronto from the Chicago Blackhawks and has proven himself to be a solid defense-first fourth-line center. He was Toronto’s most heavily-used penalty-killing forward over the past two seasons and in that span of time, Toronto’s penalty kill ranks sixth in the NHL with a kill rate of 82%.
Toronto would surely like to have him back but like many of the other players on expiring deals, he may have earned a pay raise that bumps him to an area of pay Toronto won’t be able to match. He’ll be among the top fourth-line centers available on the market in any case and should earn a bump from the $1.5MM he earned this past season.
D Luke Schenn – Schenn has found himself in a different spot than where he was during his first tour of duty with the Maple Leafs. No longer is he a former top prospect whose NHL play has disappointed relative to the expectations placed upon him by the media, now he’s a widely-respected veteran defenseman who can offer gritty, hard-nosed play and two Stanley Cup rings worth of playoff experience.
Schenn earned $850k this past season but will in all likelihood earn at the very least more than $1MM AAV on his next contract, and possibly far more than that. He’s a quality option for a team looking to add a proven veteran defensive defenseman to their mix but perhaps not what Toronto needs with T.J. Brodie, Timothy Liljegren, and Conor Timmins already in pace along the right-hand side of their defense.
D Justin Holl – Holl’s playoff performances made him a bit of a lightning rod for the Maple Leafs fanbase, but as someone who worked his way up from the ECHL he’s carved out a solid career for himself. He’s been a regular on head coach Sheldon Keefe’s blueline since Keefe first took over the job in 2019-20 and has averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per night for the past three seasons, including as one of the team’s leading penalty killers.
As a right-shot blueliner, Holl may not have a spot in Toronto given the presence of Timmins, Brodie, and Liljegren, but he’ll find his place on the open market and be a solid option for a team looking to beef up its blueline.
Other UFAs: F Noel Acciari, F Zach Aston-Reese, F Wayne Simmonds, F Radim Zohorna, D Erik Gustafsson, D Jordie Benn, G Erik Kallgren
Projected Cap Space
The presence of Toronto’s highly-paid core of stars makes their cap situation quite complicated, especially as key contract extensions for Matthews, Marner, and William Nylander, among others, will need to be negotiated. As a result, Toronto may not be in a position to make any major, long-term commitments before those deals are finalized. This is likely to impact the players they’ll be able to target on the open market.
CapFriendly projects them to have a little over $9MM in salary cap space, though that number would increase considerably should they manage to find a way to remove Matt Murray and his $4.687MM cap hit from their books. That should be enough to add a few role players, though if they want to make a more sizeable change to their team composition some creativity is likely to be required.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Toronto Maple Leafs Hire Shane Doan
June 9: Toronto has officially named Doan as a special advisor to Treliving.
June 8: The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to name current Arizona Coyotes executive Shane Doan as an assistant to newly-hired general manager Brad Treliving, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports Thursday afternoon.
Doan replaces the outgoing Jason Spezza, who served as a special assistant to the GM under the previous Kyle Dubas regime. Spezza put in his resignation with the Leafs after they announced they were not re-signing Dubas to a new contract.
It is surprising to see Doan leave Arizona after spending his entire playing career with the Coyotes. However, given that the future of the club is up in the air it makes sense for Doan to move on to a high profile position in which someone he knows is at the helm. Doan becomes one of Treliving’s first hires as he begins to build out the Maple Leafs management hierarchy. The two men do have history together as Treliving served as assistant general manager during Doan’s playing days in Arizona.
Doan has always been a representation of stability through the turmoil within the Coyotes organization. He stuck around through a franchise relocation, threats of relocation, ownership changes, and financial peril. Now he finds himself in perhaps the most stable franchise in hockey with an excellent opportunity to build out his career in management.
Evening Notes: Schenn, Quenneville, Senators
CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reported today that pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Luke Schenn likely wants to remain with the Toronto Maple Leafs and he expects the rearguard to get a well-deserved raise in pay on his next contract. Dhaliwal said this today on Donnie & Dhali The Team and added that Schenn is seeking some term on his next contract as well as some no trade protection.
It makes sense that the soon to be 34-year-old would like some stability for himself and his young family as he has bounced around the league the past few seasons and played under several contracts that have been for near the NHL minimum. Schenn is coming off one of the finest seasons of his career having put up four goals and 18 assists in 70 games split between the Maple Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks and is trying to cash in on what could very well be his last big payday in the NHL.
In other evening notes:
- Larry Brooks of the New York Post writes that he doesn’t believe the delay in the New York Rangers search for a new coach is tied to former Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville. Brooks lists several reasons for his thinking here including the fact that general manager Chris Drury is currently in Buffalo at the scouting combine. Brooks goes on to add that he can’t see NHL commissioner Gary Bettman meeting with Quenneville before the draft to discuss reinstatement and that the Rangers would like to have someone in place before free agency begins on July 1st.
- The final stage in the sale of the Ottawa Senators has been going on for over three weeks and according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia there has been no indication of who will be awarded preferred bidder status. Garrioch writes that this may be a tactic being used to keep all the groups engaged in case they need fall back options should one of the bids fall through. The belief is that the final stage has been slowed by all the back and forth between the parties involved as they try to hammer down the final details in what should be the end of a very long process. Garrioch goes on to say that is does appear that this has become a three-horse race as it looks as though the Neko Sparks group is a long shot to win ownership of the club. They are having issues putting the financing in place, but at this time, they are still in the running.