The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Consider Re-Signing Cody Ceci

After this season ends, the Toronto Maple Leafs blue line will look a little different.

With the possibility of Tyson Barrie being on his way out after this season, you could see the Toronto Maple Leafs sign another right-shot defenseman on the team.

Along with Justin Holl and Timothy Liljegren (who should be up next season full-time), there’s still one player who they could get their money’s worth from.

Barrie, who is likely to expect a lot of money may not be a number-one choice, so if that doesn’t work out, their next best option is Cody Ceci.

The best option within the organization already — let me just say.

Although the Toronto Maple Leafs may be tight to the cap, this may be one of their only options.

With all the uncertainty in regards to next season, and the rest of this season, the cap likely won’t rise much.

Once July 1st comes, the Toronto Maple Leafs will get around $8.115 million in cap space from Barrie, Ceci and Travis Dermott (who becomes an RFA), according to CapFriendly.

If you sign Ceci to a one or two-year deal at around $1-1.5 million, you’ll have his cost down, plus he could fit on the third pairing and be effective there.

We’ve all witnessed how he plays on the first pairing and we’ve also witnessed it on the second pairing, but if he’s on the final pairing, there’s not much he can do to mess up.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Signing Ceci to a deal isn’t the worst idea I’ve come up with for next season.

After Kyle Dubas didn’t budge at the trade deadline, you knew he was comfortable with the group that he had, which includes Ceci.

That was the reason he signed him for that much money in the first place. He believed there was more to his game than everybody saw — which can be true about some parts, but the majority of his game isn’t first-pairing material.

He belongs on the third pairing, playing a sheltered role with sheltered minutes. Not allowing him to play in key situations will help the Toronto Maple Leafs a lot.

If you re-sign Ceci though, that means you’d likely see either Holl or Liljegren on the first pair alongside Morgan Rielly. I don’t know if that’s the right choice either.  Sandin or Dermott may also switch sides.

I’d like to see Liljegren get another shot in the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup next season, maybe with him in the top-four. He does need more minutes because it clearly wasn’t working with him being a bubble defenseman this season.

It very well could be a good idea to sign Ceci to a deal that’s team friendly and cost-effective, but Dubas may want to go for a big fish.

That could be a number-one right-shot defenseman, or it could be another winger. But if it doesn’t line up, the backup plan of re-signing Cody Ceci will be there — likely for a while.

It’s not the best you can do, but it’s also not the worst. Giving him a contract like that sets him up for that sheltered role, which he desperately needed this season.

If he gets it, good. If he doesn’t get it — there’s still a number of defenseman available who could be better and cheaper too.