Keys to the offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski of ESPN: Looking at the keys to the offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Maple Leafs have to make changes and that will likely start with president Brendan Shanahan and GM Kyle Dubas. Their master plan hasn’t worked and it may be time for a new direction.
They don’t have a lot of salary cap space to work with. Goaltender Jack Campbell is a pending UFA and will the Leafs be able to match his ask? If they don’t re-sign Campbell, who will they go with?
Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren should get more responsibility which could bump out Jake Muzzin.
Now is not the time for the Maple Leafs to make big changes
Jonas Siegel of The Athletic: After last season’s loss to the Montreal Canadiens, that was the time to make a pivot change to the Toronto Maple Leafs and not because of this year’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
They put up a franchise-best 115 points in the regular season and were so close against the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
Moving one from one of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares or Morgan Rielly make not make sense given how they played this year. Now is not time to trade Nylander.
One might wonder if it’s time to move Taraves to the wing. He and Nylander together don’t always work defensively.
Pierre Engvall and Ondrej Kase are pending RFAs and should be back.
It seems likely that they bring Jack Campbell back. Will the Leafs be able to trade Petr Mrazek and his two years at $3.8 million? They would need to find another backup if they did.
A decision on defenseman Jake Muzzin will need to made. He has two years left at $5.625 million.
Will they try to bring Mark Giordano back, and will he want to come back?
Pending UFA Ilya Mikheyev will likely have priced himself out of Toronto.