RFAs
- no notable RFAs ending up to the free agency with Dermott leaving to Seattle. Offering the league minimum contracts for Korshkov, Duszak and Woll.
UFAs
- re-signing pending UFA LW Zach Hyman to a 7-year, $30M contract. Cap hit a bit under $4,3M, which imo is a fine contract for a player of his caliber.
- re-signing Simmonds to play the 4th line role with 1x1 contract. Brings physicality and leadership to the team.
- Lehtonen, Barabanov, Vesey leave to look for more ice time elsewhere
- veteran presence of Andersen, Thornton, Spezza, and Bogosian not re-signed. Expecting Thornton and Spezza call it quits, Andersen wanting to leave the immense pressure of playing in the hockey center of this planet, and Bogosian probably heading to Switzerland or calling it quits...who knows.
Free agency signings
- G Antti Raanta, a placeholder goalie signed with a 1-year, $3M contract. Guy being the odd man out in ARI behind Kuemper and Hill is likely to head free agency. Despite being a bit injury prone, his statistics are decent. The 32-year old could form a nice one year tandem with Campbell.
- F Konstantin Okulov, the annual KHL pick of this year, as expected. The 25-year old forward has been playing in almost PPG pace in CSKA Moscow.
- D Dmitry Kulikov, after a meh year in Devils he comes to Toronto camp with a PTO, and gets himself a league-minimum contract to fulfill the role of a 7th D.
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Lineup
Forwards
- on the first line I'd want the ability to play physical hockey with being able to drive the puck and have some high danger shots in there to boot. Combinating all these, a Nylander-Matthews-Hyman line makes the most sense to me.
- dropping Marner to the second line, playing more two way game with Tavares and Robertson. Robertson can use his lethal shot weapon with two elite playmakers. Tavares' numbers decreased after parting with Marner, so maybe reuniting the two could work wonders for them. Marner's ability to play 2-way game somewhat well is very valuable for this line.
- 3rd line has Kerfoot as the defensive center, with some Russian wingers able to drive play. I'd like to see them trying something like this already this year with Barabanov in there.
- getting a slot for their younger guys under contract, Anderson and Engvall in the 4th line is worth trying imo, while re-signing the grit in Simmonds.
Defense
- I don't think the Rielly-Brodie pairing is going to work, so I'll replace Brodie with Sandin. Their best D prospect's ice time shouldn't be hindered behind some veterans, instead give him time to play with Rielly and play some good hockey with lots of ice time, because they could very well be losing Rielly after this year, and they only have Sandin to fill his place in the roster.
- dropping Brodie to second pair, and giving him another young D pair in Liljegren. Brodie returns to left side, mentoring Liljegren to develop.
- the shutdown pair of Muzzin-Holl should stay intact, for Holl is completely miserable without Muzzin's presence, and since Dubas decided to ink the guy long-term, he should get all the help possible.
Ideally who would you replace him with? Naturally of the goalies available...not thinking of Hart or something like that lol
Binnington would be great but they likely don’t have the cap. I forget if grubauer is a free agent but he would be an option. I would also be interested in one of Columbus’ goalies.
Ideally who would you replace him with? Naturally of the goalies available...not thinking of Hart or something like that lol
Who? That's a tough question right now. Maybe a UFA goalie who would cost less. Leafs can also opt to trade for a goalie under contract as well. They managed to pull that off with getting Andersen so maybe that can happen again.
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