The Toronto Maple Leafs’ day dramatically turned between terrible and great when they opened for free agency yesterday.
The Toronto Maple Leafs started out in perfect fashion with Dave Nonis, signing 40-year-old Ryan Reeves, an enforcer (!) in a league he no longer uses, and who is very expensive. Hit the cap for a very long time.
Objectively speaking, it’s a bad decision, when combined with David Kampf’s contract and the fact that Sam Lafferty is still around means the Leafs will struggle to rectify their inability to score on their superstar players.
However, it wasn’t all bad news for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
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Ryan O’Reilly did the Leafs a favor by fleeing to Nashville for four years. This contract is so strict Some might even call it a tear-jerking Elvis Costello.
The Detroit Red Wings signed Justin Hall for reasons known only to him. I certainly don’t know what they were thinking, but after rumors surfaced that the Leafs wanted him back, I was thrilled with the news.
Edmonton has awarded Connor Brown a $4 million contract. Ken Holland remains the worst general manager in the world, but Barry Trotz seems determined to strip him of his title.
Not only did Trotz bring O’Reilly to Nashville, but he also signed Luke Schenn to a three-year deal and signed him with Crazy Town Chief.
While Kampf and Reeves were bad moves that wasted space, the truth is that they are minor moves compared to what the others did on Saturday.
Many NHL teams have gotten worse, and when your opponents get worse, you get better. So it was a good day for the Leafs in some ways.
Whether or not it was a really good day depends on what happened after you finished writing this article (which you can read in an hour or less).
Did the Leafs trade Erik Carlson? they do not have. However, they added outfielder John Kellenberg, a player similar to Tyson Barry—that is, a right-handed puck player and not very good on defense.
Leafsd didn’t hit Matt Duchene, Patrick Kane, or Vladdy Tarasenko with a massive discount, but two of those three guys stayed on the board.
Late in the day, the Leafs also lost Kerfoot and Bunker. Two players who may not be eligible for their new contracts.
Apparently Shanny and Treliving wanted to bring the whole gang back, and I have to say I’m glad they couldn’t get him out. Schenn, O’Reilly and Holl are aggravating their new teams for wasted space, while the Leafs now have fewer than five regular players who will need to dress very differently than they want to.
All in all, not a good day, but certainly not a bad day for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- Posted on 02/07/2023 at 10:00 am
- Last updated 07/02/2023 at 10:00 am
