The Toronto Maple Leafs dipped their toes pretty deep into the free agent pool when the period first opened, signing multiple players to short, one-year deals.
The only hiccup here, however, is that only half of them have actually been announced.
The Maple Leafs’ dove into the NHL’s bargain bin on July 1st and came away with an asset that reportedly featured four players: Jason Spezza, Nick Shore, Kenny Agostino and Kevin Gravel. At least, that’s what we were led to believe. Now roughly two weeks after news of those signings was announced via media members, only Spezza’s acquisition has been officially acknowledged by the Maple Leafs organization in a press release, while Agostino, Shore, and Gravel have not.
Needless to say, that’s a little odd. From TSN to Sportsnet to even CBS Sports, every online transaction tracker includes these signings. Even CapFriendly accounts for each of Toronto’s four free agent arrivals when determining how much wiggle room the team currently has to work with, leaving only Agostino’s reported price tag of $700,000 with the caveat of “Unconfirmed Contract Details”.
And yet, there have been precisely zero tweets from Leafs PR, no conference call from Kyle Dubas acknowledging any addition aside from Spezza, and no posts from even any of the three yet-to-be-announced players’ social media accounts.
What gives? Why are the Maple Leafs waiting so long to officially announce what is ultimately a trio of fringe signings? Well, it all likely boils down to Mitch Marner. Just like everything does these days
I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but Marner hasn’t signed his contract yet, as the saga now appears set to bleed into training camp once again. His unconfirmed presence in limbo hangs over the Maple Leafs like a dark cloud, constricting them from making any further moves for the remainder of the offseason given how they aren’t entirely sure of how much cap space they will have to work with.
The hold up in Marner’s negotiation process seems to centre around a difference in the range of $1 million per season. It may not seem like much, and not worth taking a team to the wall about, but determining whether Marner makes $9 million or $10 million next season (his AAV should be capped there. Sorry, Uncles) will nevertheless leave a lasting impact on how Kyle Dubas balances his team’s budget.
So, here’s my theory:
The Maple Leafs have handshake agreements with each of Shore, Agostino, and Gravel for them to sign with the team once the Marner saga hopefully comes to its fateful end. These players are each far from reaching the status of marquee free agents and therefore would not be able to theoretically leverage outside interest to secure a contract right now anyway.
Once Marner’s deal is signed, the Maple Leafs will then happily lock these ancillary pieces in. However, in the event the Marner Saga goes absolutely haywire and, somehow, sees his AAV come in well above projections, Dubas can simply walk away from what is reported to be $2.1 million spread across three players to make room.
At least, that’s the only logical conclusion I can come up with. I could be totally wrong. Who knows? In the meantime, I wouldn’t use pen when slotting in Shore, Agostino or Gravel into any mock depth charts.
Thanks for reading!