Rapid Rewind: Grading the Leafs’ Offseason

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a lot of work to do in the offseason. The first order of business was to clear some cap space so they could find a back up goalie. The Leafs had to find a way to get a number one defenseman, whether via free agency or a trade. The team had some key restricted free agents to re-sign for the upcoming season and beyond, but none of this could be done without finding ways of clearing cap space via trade.

TRADES

The Leafs sent veteran forward Patrick Marleau, his $6.25 million contract and two draft picks to the Carolina Hurricanes for a sixth round 2020 Draft pick. This move was purely done to clear cap space because he was then bought out by the Hurricanes, and Marleau remains a free agent. The team then sent goaltender Garrett Sparks to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for forward David Clarkson and a 2020 4th round draft pick. The team will likely put Clarkson on LTIR, and his contract won’t count towards the cap. This deal was to get Sparks out of the organization and give him a fresh start elsewhere.

The Leafs got their number one pairing defenseman when they traded forward Nazem Kadri, defenseman Calle Rosen and a draft pick to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for defenseman Tyson Barrie, forward Alexander Kerfoot and a draft pick. The Avalanche needed  a second line center and weren’t going to re-sign Barrie next offseason. The Leafs needed a number one pairing defenseman and Kadri has had his suspension problems in the postseason so the trade made sense for both teams. 

The Leafs sent defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, forward Connor Brown and prospect Michael Carcone to the Ottawa Senators for defenseman Cody Ceci,  defenseman Ben Harpur, Aaron Luchuk and a 2020 third round pick. The Leafs were able to get Zaitsev’s awful contract off the books to free up some much needed cap space.

FREE AGENCY

This was spent re-signing key players like Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson to new deals. Kapanen signed a new three-year deal with a $3.2 million cap hit per season. Johnsson signed a new four-year deal that has a cap hit of $3.4 million per season. Goalie Michael Hutchinson was brought back on a one-year deal as was defenseman Martin Marincin. The free agency period was mostly spent upgrading the team’s minor league affiliates.

The biggest free agency move was the signing of center Jason Spezza for one-year. Spezza’s new contract is worth $700,000. They will have a cheap option for the bottom six in left wing Pontus Aberg, who signed a one-year, $700,000 deal. The team also signed Nick Shore to a one-year deal and let defenseman Jake Gardiner walk in free agency. Michal Neuvirth and Matt Read have been invited to training camp to see if they can steal a roster spot.

OVERALL GRADE: B-

The Maple Leafs got the number one defenseman who can log minutes and play a two-way game that they needed. The team also signed a backup goalie, who can hopefully start a few games so Frederik Andersen can get some rest and grab some wins. Toronto created cap space and managed to re-sign key restricted free agents to good deals.

The biggest reason for the B- is that Mitch Marner is still unsigned, as are a ton of restricted free agents. The team doesn’t have any cap space available, but can create some by moving Nathan Horton and Clarkson to LTIR. Even with those moves, the Leafs still won’t have enough money to sign Marner to a new deal. They will need to make another move to get even further under the cap Marner can be re-signed.