Wild waiting on Marc-Andre Fleury, the Leafs as well?
Michael Russo: Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin said he’s still waiting on a Marc-Andre Fleury decision.
Guerin spoke with agent Allan Walsh and there is no firm deadline.
Guerin has his fingers crossed that they’ll know by the draft so that they can address their goaltending by trade or free agency if need be.
NHL Watcher: Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts on Marc-Andre Fleury: “There were people who said he did not want to go to Toronto, I don’t think that’s true, I just think the Leafs and Blackhawks could not agree on the trade and that’s because Chicago wanted Knies and Toronto wasn’t willing to do that.”
Plenty of decisions for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets: The Maple Leafs have about $6.4 million in projected salary cap space with 18 players under contract. RFAs include Ondrej Kase, Pierre Engvall and Rasmus Sandin. They need at least one goaltender.
Petr Mrazek and Justin Holl could be traded to create some cap space.
Teams can trade for the rights to pending UFA Ilya Mikheyev if they want to get a jump on free agency. He’s asking for over $4 million a season.
It doesn’t appear likely that Jack Campbell will be back with the Leafs.
At the right price, Ilya Lyubushkin and Colin Blackwell could be brought back.
Engvall and Kase are owed $1.25 million qualifying offers and are arbitration-eligible. The sides continue to talk.
Sandin is now fourth on the left side of the depth chart behind Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and Mark Giordano.
The Leafs need to figure out their goaltending situation, and will they need one or goaltenders. They also need to add some depth.
Potential UFA goaltender targets include Ville Husso, Darcy Kuemper and Marc-Andre Fleury.
Potential UFA forward depth options include Zach Aston-Reese, Johan Larsson and Nicolas Deslauriers.
Internal options include Nick Robertson, Joey Anderson, Pontus Holmberg, Bobby McMann, Curtis Douglas, Nick Abruzzese and Alex Steeves.
