The Toronto Maple Leafs off-season is off to a flying start.
Last week, the Toronto Maple Leafs committed a brazen heist of the Pittsburgh Penguins, sending them a borderline 4th liner in exchange for a first round draft pick, a top prospect and some much needed cap space.
Then, late last week, it was reported by James Mirtle of the Athletic that 4 Leafs were on the block to varying degrees. Regardless, we know that the Leafs, now armed with a first round pick, and some cap space, are not done.
Then, yesterday, a rumour came out that the Carolina Hurricanes are interested in one of those players, specifically Freddie Andersen. This came from Elliotte Freidman’s 31 thoughts, which is everyone’s favorite weekly hockey piece.
Trading Freddie Andersen
The Leafs are going to trade Freddie Andersen and I will almost guarantee it at this point. Where there is smoke, there is fire, and the reason there is fire is that trading him just makes sense.
Andersen has one more year remaining on a deal that will make him an unrestricted free-agent, but the Leafs front loaded that deal with bonuses, so he has only $1 million in actual salary owed to him.
With Covid sapping many teams of their financial resources, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a distinct advantage. Carolina isn’t spending to the cap, so they don’t care about Andersen’s cap hit. What they care about is getting a goalie who is in his prime for a million dollars.
Freidman also mentioned Darcy Kuemper in the article. The Coyotes are poor and have no intention of competing next year. The Coyotes have traded this year’s first and just lost their next draft pick to punishment from the league, a terrible situation for a rebuilding team.
The Leafs just happen to need a goalie and have a first round pick. Kuemper is only six months older than Andersen, but he has a cap lower by half a million, and is a better goalie. Keumper, had he stayed healthy, could have won the Hart/Vezina in either of the last two years and is the only reason the Coyotes even made the playoffs this year.
Since the Leafs already paid most of Andersen’s contract and since he’s coming off an excellent .936% playoffs, it’s likely the Leafs could get more for Andersen than they pay for Kuemper.
It’s a play that makes a lot of sense for the Leafs as it uses their financial might to upgrade an important position at almost no cost, other than financial.