Toronto Maple Leafs: Free Agency Recap Day One

This offseason, there’s only one thing on every Toronto Maple Leafs fan’s mind.

This, of course, is the negotiation of star forward Mitch Marner’s next contract. While nobody expected Marner to actually sign on Canada day, this doesn’t mean that rumours weren’t flying around left and right.

Whether it’s speculation that teams are going to offer sheet Marner, or that he wants to stay but his dad and agent are handcuffing him, or even that the Leafs are going to trade him, the rumours have been nonstop.

But alas, none of this happened today. On this note, however, the Leafs did have a very busy free agency day. It obviously isn’t quite as wild as last year was when the Leafs’ signed Toronto-born star John Tavares to a seven-year contract, but they made some very good moves in preparation for the upcoming season.

If you weren’t watching free agent frenzy or checking Twitter at all, have no fear. Here’s my breakdown of what the Leafs’ did on July 1st.

TRADE: Kadri for Barrie

This was without a doubt the biggest move the Maple Leafs made on the first day of free agency, and nobody expected it. Unlike several other moves the Maple Leafs made Monday, it seemed that nobody was expecting this one. There was no speculation leading up to it, no reports about it on days prior, there weren’t even many rumours about the possibility. Here are the full details of the trade.

TO COL:

F Nazem Kadri

D Calle Rosen

2020 3rd Round Pick

TO TOR:

D Tyson Barrie

F Alexander Kerfoot

2020 6th Round Pick

Before I go into my opinion the trade, I just want to say that saying goodbye to Kadri is incredibly hard. He was the longest serving Leaf at nine years, and he gave everything he had for the organization. But as we all know, sometimes you need to break hearts to improve your team. And the Leafs did just that.

Tyson Barrie is a right handed defenseman who’s coming off of two incredible seasons that saw him put up 57 points in 68 games and 59 points in 78 games respectively. He’s more of an offensive defenseman, but he’s stable defensively and immediately fills a need the Leafs have lacked for as long as I can remember. On the other hand, they also acquired Alexander Kerfoot who will more than likely take Kadri’s role as the third line centre. Kerfoot just finished off his sophomore NHL season where he put up a respectable 42 points in 78 games. He also carried a 56% faceoff percentage last year, which is better than any Leafs centre last year.

All in all, the Maple Leafs essentially swapped third line centres with Kadri and Kerfoot, and brought in a top right handed defenseman while sending back Calle Rosen, 26, who spent the majority of last season in the AHL. Oh, and the Avalanche are retaining 50% of Barrie’s salary for this season. This trade gets better every time I think about it and it gives the Leafs an entirely new look heading into next season.

TRADE: Zaitsev for Ceci

While it wasn’t as coveted as the Kadri/Barrie trade the Leafs made, it was still a pretty big move for the team. And it wasn’t even because of the players involved. Before we get into the reasoning of this, here’s what the trade looked like.

TO OTT:
D Nikita Zaitsev
F Connor Brown
F Michael Carcone
TO TOR:
D Cody Ceci
D Ben Harpur
F Aaron Luchuk
2020 Third Round Pick

This deal was almost entirely made to free up cap space to sign Mitch Marner. Zaitsev was signed to a brutal contract following his rookie season that had him making $4.5 million for the next five years, and considering the fact that Zaitsev was one of, if not the worst, Leafs defenseman over the past few years, getting out of this contract was a must.

Brown wasn’t making quite as much as Zaitsev, sitting at an annual cap hit of $2.1 million for one more year on his deal, but at this point, he had fallen down the depth chart and paying him north of two million to rot on the fourth line wouldn’t have made sense.

The centrepiece coming back to Toronto is defenseman Cody Ceci, who is more in need of a fresh start than anything. Ceci was one of the Senators’ worst defensemen last season, carrying a Corsi-for percentage of 44.1%, and while there were originally talks of the Leafs letting Ceci walk, they eventually elected to sign him to a one year deal at $4.5 million.

Whether the Leafs ship the former first-round pick out over the next year or let him play out the season and hope for a resurgence, Ceci was the piece that had to come back in order to unload Zaitsev. With him came defenseman Ben Harpur, who will be nothing more than a #7 or #8 defenseman if anything, forward Aaron Luchuk, who spent the majority of last season in the ECHL, and Columbus’ third-round pick in 2020.

If you look at the deal simply as the Leafs unloading Zaitsev for a third round pick, this deal looks great on the Leafs’ end.

SIGNING: F Jason Spezza

I don’t know about you guys, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to hear this today.

Spezza is coming off a brutal contract that saw him getting paid $7.5 million per season, and to make matters worse, is most recent two seasons saw him put up 27 and 28 points respectively. With that, the Leafs announced that they had signed the Mississauga-born Spezza to a one year contract at the league minimum of $700,000.

I personally can’t think of anything bad to say about this deal. Spezza at the very least will provide a veteran presence with some scoring touch and could be useful on the powerplay, and even if he falters, he’s making next to nothing.

This was all around a great signing for the Buds.

SIGNING: F Nick Shore

Nick Shore is nothing but a low-risk depth signing. He spent the majority of his career with the Los Angeles Kings, and after two short stints with the Ottawa Senators and the Calgary Flames, he spent last season in Russia playing for Metallurg Magnitogorsk, where he registered 16 points in 37 games.

The deal is a one year contract at $750,000, and the expectation is that Shore will play a bottom-six role for the team. Like Spezza, not a high-risk signing at all and if he doesn’t meet expectations, he would be easy to ship out due to the price.

SIGNING: F Kenny Agostino

No surprise here; another low-risk depth signing.

Agostino is an NHL journeyman who’s spent time with five different NHL teams before. He split last season between the Montreal Canadiens and the New Jersey Devils, putting up a combined 24 points in 63 games. His contract is at the league minimum of $700,000 for two years, and he could be a solid bottom-six forward for the club. No complaints here.

SIGNING: D Kevin Gravel

The Leafs clearly did the opposite of spending big this year, considering that Gravel’s is another contract at the league minimum of $700,000 for one year. Don’t expect too much from this signing aside from depth. He’s far from an offensive player and will likely serve as a defensive defenseman who’s able to slot in barring any injuries.

Who Went Out:

Tyler Ennis (Ottawa)
Ron Hainsey (Ottawa)

Overall, a pretty solid first day for the Maple Leafs. They cleared cap space for the Marner negotiations and brought in some low-risk depth players on cheap contracts. The next step will be to once again pay attention to the Marner contract situation and see if any developments are made over the next two months.

The upcoming season is definitely going to be an interesting one.