It’s now July 3rd and if I were a betting man there will be little to report about the Leafs moving forward. Maybe we’ll see another signing or two (or more), it’s not out of the question, but I can’t tell you that I believe there is much out there that could really help the Leafs at the moment with how much money they have left to spend. Here’s a snippet of what the roster might look like if the season opened tomorrow:
With this roster there’s just $50K left in capspace. Obviously you can’t add to it with that amount. However, I did say this is what the roster would look like if the season opened tomorrow, so why not keep everybody you can? Right? But the season doesn’t open tomorrow.
There’s absolutely nothing preventing the Leafs from waiving Conor Timmins, for starters. His role is that of an offensive defender and PP QB, but with Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and a 3rd stringer of Timothy Liljegren on the roster, the opportunity for Timmins to run with that role is small.
Within the forward group, many expect that Easton Cowan will make the team, but he has to earn that spot so nobody knows if that will happen for sure until pre-season. If he doesn’t earn that spot then he’ll be returned to Junior to develop further and his caphit can be used elsewhere. Those two combine for $2M in space, which should allow the Leafs to sign somebody at a bargain in the not too distant future.
For my money, the Leafs are still desperate for a true 3C, but those options are basically non-existent, at least through free agency. The only player that capfriendly has listed as a C that scored over 20pts last year and is still a free agent is Jack Roslovic, who had 9 goals and 31pts in 59 games. The production isn’t terrible, but I’d question his effectiveness as a good 3C as well.
After Roslovic, the next highest producer from last season was Michael McLeod…. of the 2018 WJC sexual assault McLeod’s. I think it’s best to pass on that one.
Then comes Chris Tierney, who had 12pts in 52 games. For a depth centre there’s nothing wrong with an option like that, but again, not a 3C. If they want to fill that position they’ll have to do it via trade or turn to the players that are in house. Max Domi, Pontus Holmberg and the offensively bereft David Kampf are the options. These are not ideal either.
I’d like to tell you not to worry, that they’ll fill the void via trade, but the void has existed since the departure of Ryan O’Reilly and was there for a long time before he joined the Leafs, so I don’t even expect that they’re trying to add another centre. Instead, I’d like to tell you not to worry, because there’s little anybody other than Brendan Treliving (not a typo) can do about it and they don’t seem to believe that centre depth is important. Please accept the things cannot change.
One more small wrench in the gears is this:
Some question Hakanpaa’s ability to play hockey ever again, which is concerning. Now, Steve Simmons has been wrong before, like all of us, so we can hope that his sources are wrong on this, but if the Leafs tossed $1.5M to a guy that already had his ticket to Robidas Island purchased it’s simply poor management. We’ll see how it turns out, but I’m hoping Hakanpaa is healthy and ready to go.
While I concentrated on potential centres on the free agent market, there are other’s out there that they could use that $2M on that could add some depth to the forward group. Depth scorers such as James Van Riemsdyk, Max Pacioretty or Blake Wheeler could be had cheaply and would bring some size to the lineup. Tyler Johnson, though smaller is a versatile forward that may relish the exposure of playing in Toronto.
With any addition they have to factor in the fact that Connor Dewar has yet to sign a new contract. If they want to keep him in the fold they’ll have to keep any other signing at or close to league minimum.
Lastly, I’ll take a peek at the elephant in the room. Mitch Marner.
He’s staying. Let’s just come to terms with that fact. They had the opportunity to trade him last year before his NMC kicked in and Shanahan put his foot down and said no. Now they’re exactly where we expected them to be and somehow Shanahan is still employed. It’s not a good situation, but they only have themselves to thank and the longer he’s here the worse it’s going to be in terms of pressure from the fans and media. The expectation has to be that he’ll walk next summer for nothing but capspace and, hopefully, the Leafs can use that capspace in a wiser way than they have been using it up to this point in time.