Toronto Maple Leafs: What to do With Tyler Bozak
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a decision to make.
Tyler Bozak has one year left on his current $4.2 million contract. The question is what do the Toronto Maple Leafs do with him. Keep him and try to re-sign him? Keep him for the season and let him walk? Trade him? Lets take a look at these options.
Keep him…
There are good reasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs to keep Bozak around. He just had a career high in points with 55 points in 78 games. The 31-year-old may not reach those point totals again, but he can certainly remain productive.
Playing on a line with James Van Riemsdyk (who also had a career year) and Mitch Marner provides him and the team with plenty of firepower. The Leafs will be looking to contend for their division this year so keeping the trio together makes sense. Though maybe not from a defensive standpoint.
Bozak can still be counted on to provide offence and win face-offs (career F/O% is 53.6). Since the Leafs don’t have much depth at centre, isn’t it better to be cautious? According to Mike Babcock, William Nylander will spend another year on the wing. But when he said that, he was answering a question and any other answer would have basically been firing their longest serving player.
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It doesn’t seem likely that Bozak would make much more on his next contract. At 31, he’s as good as he’ll ever get. A guy who can play the power play, penalty kill and add 45+ points is however, valuable. Depending on the Leafs centre depth by next summer, he may still be a fit.
Keeping Bozak helps the Leafs win, even if it’s only for one more year. Depending on how far the Leafs go in the playoffs, that risk could be worth it. If he wants to stay on a deal at the right price, even better.
Trade him…
There might be reasons to keep Bozak, but there are also many to trade him. Again, he’s 31 and not getting any better. He is what he is- a middle six centre.
Once Matthews, Marner, and Nylander require their new deals, it’s likely Bozak is long gone. The Leafs will need cap space for those three, so why hang on to him? He’s not in Toronto’s long-term plans.
Most importantly, it’s better to trade him and get something instead of nothing. He still has value, and the Rangers, Predators and Penguins are looking for centres. There’s no reason to think Bozak can’t return a late first or two second round picks. 50 point centres don’t grow on trees.
Another option is trading him for a good prospect or as part of a package for help on the blue line. There’s still plenty of time until the next trade deadline to find trade that works. Better to help the team long-term than letting Bozak go for nothing.
Trading Bozak will open up centre spot for Nylander or someone else to step in. From my viewpoint, that appears to be the Leafs’ plan for the future.