Toronto Maple Leafs: Denis Malgin Signing Will Start a Trend

The Toronto Maple Leafs have resigned Denis Malgin to a one-year $700K contract.

Get used to the Toronto Maple Leafs making multiple league-minimum signings for the next few weeks because the re-upping of Denis Malgin is about to start a trend.

It’s no surprise saying this but the Leafs will benefit tremendously from having a bottom-six of league minimum players. With Malgin signed, the team now has six potential forwards making less than $1M that they can use on the bottom-two lines:

• Nick Robertson: $821K
• Denis Malgin: $700K
• Alexander Barabanov: $925K
• Adam Brooks: $725K
• Nic Petan: $775K
• Kenny Agostino: $737K

Those are six pretty reliable bottom-six players that aren’t going to hurt an NHL team. Depending on what happens with Andreas Johnsson and Alex Kerfoot this off-season, it’s quite possible that the Leafs will have a bottom-six making less than $6M combined. If the Toronto Maple Leafs can pull that off, it would be extremely beneficial in upgrading their blue-line.

Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Denis Malgin

Back to Malgin, though. He received a lot of criticism last year because he played in eight games with the Leafs, and didn’t register a point. At 5-foot-9, 175 pounds, I was definitely one of those people who were upset that they traded away a great prospect (Mason Marchment) for another small winger.

However, with 192 NHL games under his belt, Malgin has shown that he’s a true professional. As a fourth-line player, he’s really not going to hurt the team in that spot. Also, because of his speed, he’ll be able to jump in on Auston Matthews or John Tavares line if one their wingers are injured.

His Corsi Rating is above 50 percent in his four seasons in the NHL as well, so that’s a positive for the Leafs. Obviously Toronto’s management team liked him if they traded away Marchment for him in the first place, so with a full-season under his belt and a better opportunity, he could be a fine fourth-line player in Toronto.

The biggest question that comes from the Malgin signing though, is whether or not this means that Jason Spezza will be gone. Malgin is a natural centre but played the wing in Toronto because that position was stocked. By bringing him back, it could very well mean that Spezza and Frederick Gauthier are both done with the Leafs, because they already have Matthews, Tavares, Alex Kerfoot, Pierre Engvall and now Malgin as centres.

Regardless of what happens with the Leafs current UFA/RFA’s, one thing that’s certain is that they are not done signing players to league-minimum deals. Whether it’s a few familiar faces that they resign, or it’s others you wouldn’t even think of in Free Agency, the Leafs will do everything they can to sign as many players to the minimum amount of money.

It’ll be a fun few weeks in Leafs-Land and I cannot wait.