I know that, it was just a joke

He can do it again! Oh wait that's not a good thing...

IF Toronto has to play Benoit with Klingberg, the season will have seriously come off the rails.

A young big angry boy for league minimum, worth a try...

His on-ice goal differential was -70, which was 7.5 BELOW expected. So he was bad defensively on a bad team. But he likes to hit, so he will be useful if he's still around by playoff time. (He could be grabbed from waivers.)

Waiver wire watching

I’d never heard of this guy, but it sounds like he’s a one-dimensional player – all he can do is hit. I don’t think this has any effect on Timmins because they’re different types of players. If anything, it’s the signing of Klingberg that made Timmins redundant, though I’d rather have Timmins at $1.1M cap hit than Klingberg at $4.15M.

CapFriendly is showing Benoit already in the minors, and unless there's a couple of injuries on the Leafs, that’s where I expect him to end up, like Lajoie and Lagesson, though it also says it’s a 1-way contract, but I don’t think the Leafs care if they pay a guy an NHL salary to play in the AHL, as long as it’s low enough not to count against the cap. (I don’t know if he needs to clear waivers – looks like he was in the minors at the end of last season, which I think means he could stay there without being waived – but they’re probably not too concerned about that when it took him almost two months to find a league minimum contract.)

Yeah he had a bad +/- but he was partnered with Klingberg...

... oh

Everyone who aren’t waivers exempt has to go through waivers if sent down before Opening night (or even after)

But what does "sent down" mean? I thought a player has to clear waivers only if he's in the NHL and they want to send him down. If he's already in the minors, which I think Benoit was at the end of last season, and he stays there, then he's not being "sent" down because he's already down. Or does getting an invite to training camp or signing a 1-way contract count as being called up to the NHL? There's no mention of those situations on CapFriendly's waivers page.

He will have to clear waivers to stay where he is which is in the AHL

Leafs are in bad shape if he plays one minutes in the NHL.
Gee not sure if even helps the Marlies.,

Not a ducks fan but he failed miserably to play second pair minutes next to Klingberg. He can hit though and will be much more effective when paired with someone who actually defends and in a depth role

Y'all need cap space still

Its a league minimum for a pretty mediocre, but still young"ish" guy. He is more of what they need (stay at home, shot block, hitter, crease clearer) than timmins. But with Giordano's age (and Brodie/Klingberg's age/histories), a better 6th or 7th was needed.

Considering he was just extended, coach Keefe played Holl and Schenn (two stay at home guys) in big minutes over timmins, giordano, liljegren because he thought that was what they needed, and now he has the exact opposite in Klingberg?

Fine signing, but it shows a real talent gap/need in the organization, when he is your 1st callup on defense.

And the fact they're still over the cap by 1.2mil with really only timmins at 1.1mil as the extra, means somebody bigger has to go. Just going 18 skaters or 11/7 waiting on an injury to happen is, when you're "BIG" callups are Holmberg and Benoit, is pretty sad.

This is one of the better comments I've seen on this signing which, frankly, has received much more of our attention than it deserves, but I like that you put it in the perspective of what the team really needs. Not only did Keefe play Holl and Schenn over Timmins and Liljegren, he also played them over Gustafsson, who actually put up more points than Klingberg last season (though Klingberg did have more goals), so clearly Keefe believed -- correctly in my opinion -- that they didn't need another offensive defenseman as much as somebody who could hit and defend. From that perspective, the Benoit signing makes more sense than the Klingberg signing since Klingberg wasn't what they needed, though it's going to take somebody better than Benoit to replace Schenn's contribution.

Bad shape?

Benoit has been good and has deserved an extension. Nothing crazy but yea I can see him third pair next year.

850-925k should be good on a 1-2 year deal