3 Moves the Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Make for Next Season
In order to give themselves a shot at next year’s Stanley Cup, the Toronto Maple Leafs will need to make a few important moves this off-season.
No matter how you look at it, the Toronto Maple Leafs had a disappointing season. From Mike Babcock’s early season struggles to the unlikely loss to the Blue Jackets in the play-in round of the Playoffs, the Leafs did not get the results they were looking for.
Every team lived through the same adversities and Toronto should have had an advantage playing in their home arena. You would think that the familiarity of playing at Scotiabank Arena for the qualifying series would help make things easier, but instead, the Leafs were sent packing in five games, due to one of the best goaltending performances the NHL has seen in recent years.
The Leafs are closer to being a contender than a pretender, but there are a few more things they need to do this off-season in order to get there. Here are three moves the Leafs must do before the start of the 2020-21 season.
#3. Re-Sign Depth Forwards
The Toronto Maple Leafs third-line may look a lot different next season but the fourth-line should stay in-tact.
During the qualifying series, the fourth-line of Jason Spezza, Kyle Clifford and Pierre Engvall was the hardest working line beside the top-unit of Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and John Tavares. Although nobody on the line scored a goal or contributed a point offensively, they provided a spark and energy that nobody else on the team was doing.
Engvall is already signed for next season at $1.25M, but Clifford and Spezza are UFA’s. There is no other player on the Leafs that plays like Clifford, so the team needs to bring him back immediately. As shown in that qualifying series, he wasn’t afraid to hit everyone in sight and that’s the type of guy you need in the post-season.
Obviously the dollar-figure is incredibly important in re-signing Clifford, because you can’t pay a fourth-line player $1.5M on this team. However, if he’s willing to sign for around $1M to play for his hometown team, it would be a good price for him, although his agent said this week he will be testing free agency.
The 37-year-old Spezza showed no signs of slowing down this year and there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t sign for the league minimum. For only about $1.75M, the Leafs should bring back two forwards that are extremely important to the depth of the team.
#2. Trade Freddie Andersen
Over the past month, I’ve written a number of different articles entitled “Hypothetical Trade of the Day,” with the majority of them including Freddie Andersen. In an ideal world, I’d love for Andersen to stay next year, but it makes the most sense to trade him today.
Andersen has a year left on his deal, but because the Leafs have already paid 80% of the actual money owed in the form of signing bonus, he should be able to bring back an excellent asset from a team desperate to save money.
Andersen was very good in the qualifying series and if the Leafs actually scored a goal, I think they could have made a serious run. However, that didn’t happen and now the Leafs have a very good asset with one year remaining until he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent.
At $5M per season, Andersen is an underpaid goaltender. However, that’s going to change next season when the Leafs won’t be able to afford him anyways. So, should the Leafs play the season out with Andersen, hoping they win a Stanley Cup with him, or move the contract for a player or draft pick in return and find a goalie in free agency this off-season?
Based on how many free agent goalies there are this off-season, the best answer is to trade him and get something in return. Having a 1A and 1B goalie has worked for many other teams in the past few seasons, and I think the Leafs already have their 1B in Jack Campbell.
Therefore, it would be great to see more of Campbell next season, with hopes the team could acquire a goalie in Free Agency for much cheaper than $5M per season. The Leafs need to upgrade their defense more than their goaltending anyway, so if they can use the Andersen money to sign a defenseman or two, that would benefit the team greater than keeping him.
#1. Acquire an Elite Defenseman
This does not mean re-signing Tyson Barrie or any bottom-pairing defenseman. This is all about getting Alex Pietrangelo.
The Leafs defensive-core is OK, but as we saw in the qualifying series and regular season, one injury can make them awful. If Morgan Rielly or Jake Muzzin are out of the line-up, the team falls apart defensively.
Even if Rasmus Sandin improves next season and Mikko Lehtonen is serviceable, the Leafs are one defenseman away from having a solid core. In an ideal world, you’d want the the left-side to be: Rielly, Muzzin and Sandin and the right-side: Insert Elite Player’s Name, Lehtonen and Justin Holl.
By acquiring a right-handed stud, it pushes everyone down a spot into a role that they’re better suited playing. Obviously, the biggest concern in acquiring someone like Pietrangelo is money. The King City native grew up cheering for the hometown Leafs, but that may not be enough in getting him to come back.
For someone entering UFA status for the first time in his career, he’s not going to take a discount to come home. In all reality, it feels like he would like to return to St. Louis, but if a deal can’t be done, the Leafs will need to clear space for him to come home.
Even if the Leafs can’t get Pietrangelo, they’re going to have to acquire someone. Whether it’s Matt Dumba, Aaron Ekblad or Colton Parayko, the team desperately needs another high-end defender.
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It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks, but if the Leafs don’t address this issue, you can kiss away any chance you thought they had at winning a Stanley Cup next year.