First, we’ll start with a couple of signings from yesterday. The first has little to discuss:
Max Domi signed a 4 year extension with a $3.75M AAV. For a player that scored 47pts with the Leafs last year, as well as 56pts the season before, I think thats good value. If he can continue to provide that type of scoring he’ll more than live up to that contract. What’s more is he showed a surprisingly amount of versatility by playing all 3 forward positions and isn’t afraid to step in to pick up for his teammates. He’ll fight for the jersey in whichever way you ask him to and that’s something that is sorely lacking from this team. Congratulations Max and welcome back!!
The Leafs also signed Timothy Liljegren to a two year extension:
Here’s the issue that I have with Liljegren; he’s good, but he’s simply not great at anything. What I mean by that is he’s a good skater, but he doesn’t have great speed or agility, he’s just good. He’s a good puck carrier, not great, but good. He’s a good offensive defender, but he’s simply not good enough to run the 1st or 2nd powerplay unit. He’d be a good fill-in if one of your PP QB’s went down to injury though. He’s a good defender, but he’s not great and hasn’t carved out a role as an overly useful penalty killer.
The point is this; roles are important in the NHL. Your coach wants you to do something for the team. Score, defend, block shots, play physical, anything really, but he doesn’t do any one thing above average, he’s simply average (or slightly below) across the board. Case in point, Liljegren played 19:40 TOI/GP last season with an average of 1:05 TOI/GP shorthanded and 1:41 TOI/GP with the man advantage. He wasn’t in the top 4 for TOI/GP while shorthanded and if it wasn’t for John Klingberg losing a year to injury he wouldn’t have gotten any time with the man advantage either, because all of those minutes would have went to Rielly and Klingberg.
This is also the reason he gets scratched so much in the playoffs. If a team’s PK unit isn’t working, for example, and they need to shake it up, they may put in that hulking blueliner that makes league minimum and will eat shots for breakfast. Who comes out of the lineup to make room for him though? It’s not your top penalty killers, it’s your final call and the final call in Toronto has always been Liljegren.
If I were coaching Liljegren I would simply tell him to pick a lane and carve out a role within it. Make yourself indispensable in some form or another, because at the moment he doesn’t bring any real value to a team in the playoffs outside of giving the players that just did something valuable a rest.
We’ll move onto a possible future signing:
The original rumour involved the Leafs offering Chris Tanev a longer term deal to lower the average caphit, as Elliotte Friendman reported they were looking at something around the 6 year mark with a caphit just below $4M. The impression I get is that the league stepped in and issued a warning to teams that any contract structured in this way would be investigated for cap circumvention. It was rumoured that the Tampa Bay Lightning offered Steven Stamkos a long term deal with a $3M caphit and they were likely issues a warning as well. What I do find funny is that the Lightning were rumoured to have offered that deal to Stamkos days ago and nobody said a word, but once the Leafs did it people like Frank Seravalli came out with a little rant about how it’s against the rules.
If the deal for Tanev is closer to 4 years with a $5M caphit it’s simply too large of a caphit. He may be worth that today but it’s not hard to predict rapid regression from a player that will turn 35 by the end of this calendar year. Hopefully they figure something out that works for the player and team, but there isn’t a ton of capspace to work with, especially considering……..
https://x.com/ProducerDrew_/status/1807590043571392803
The Leafs are already committing more cap to their forwards this season over last season and they haven’t filled out their roster yet. William Nylander’s raise outpaced the rise in the cap alone, while Auston Matthews, Max Domi and Bobby McMann also received raises. We’re not entering a year of change, as so many fans had hoped for. In fact they’re sinking deeper into the issues they already created for themselves.
If Chris Tanev does sign for $5M per season, the Leafs will be left with about $9M in capspace and will still need a tandem goalie to play with Joseph Woll, a top 4 defender (unless they want Liljegren there), and a top 6 forward and that’s at the very least, meaning there would be no 13th forward or 7th defender on the roster. It would also mean being forced to play either Max Domi or Pontus Holmberg at 3C, being forced to use Liljegren as your PP2 QB and showing no real improvement in personnel on the powerplay or penalty kill.
In short, they’ll be running it back.
What they won’t be doing is running it back with Nicolas Robertson in the fold:
I think this is a situation where, if I’m the Leafs GM, I’d play hardball with the player for no other reason than to make a statement. With so few NHL games under his belt and with so little success within that time, the player hasn’t earned the right to ask for a trade. The chance to earn more minutes was there, as he was afforded the opportunity to play in the top 6 last season, but he simply didn’t run with it. This isn’t a scenario where he was being kept in the minors without a clear path back to the team, although he was sent down to start the season in the AHL, being a victim of a numbers game. It was said that it was made clear to him that he would be back soon, so being completely discontented seems like an overreaction on the players part and makes me believe that he never intended to make Toronto his home for his entire career. There’s nothing wrong with seeking a trade for him, but if every other team is lowballing the Leafs then you make the player sit in the minors.