3 Worst Lou Lamoriello Signings as Toronto Maple Leafs G.M.

#2. Nikita Zaitsev Extension

Contract Details: Seven Years, $31.5 million contract ($4.5 million per season)

The Nikita Zaitsev extension is kind of like a Las Vegas wedding.

You meet someone, get drunk, and a few minutes later, say screw it, “let’s get married!”

Zaitsev was a catch during his first season in Toronto. He scored 36 points and was arguably Toronto’s second best defenseman, behind Morgan Rielly.

Right-handed defensemen are rare in the NHL, so after seeing Zaitsev perform for a year, they wanted to be together for a very long time, so they signed him to a seven (!) year extension.

That’s when everything fell apart. Everyone sobered up and all of a sudden the Leafs wanted a divorce.

Unfortunately, they never signed a prenup so Zaitsev was laughing to the bank as a rich 26-year-old, while the Leafs were doing everything they could to get out of the marriage.

Zaitsev never had a season where his Corsi was above 50 percent, and his offensive numbers completely dropped after signing the extension.

Similar to the marriage example, it’s kind of like someone who had a six-pack when they got married, then all of a sudden started eating McDonalds every night and didn’t care about their appearance anymore.

Zaitsev went from having 36 points in his rookie season to only having 27 points in his next 141 games.

Lamoriello and the Maple Leafs thought they were going to live happily ever after with a stud right-handed defenseman from Russia, but instead were cat-fished.

They were fortunately able to get out of the contract quickly by trading him to Ottawa, but that money could have spent in one hundred different ways if it wasn’t wasted on Zaitsev.