Toronto Maple Leafs Decide Not to Qualify 4 Restricted Free-Agents

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that they are not extending qualifying offers to four pending Restricted Free Agents.

The four Toronto Maple Leafs that are not getting extended qualifying offers are: Frederick Gauthier, Jeremy Bracco, Evan Rodrigues and Max Veronneau.

If you include Alexander Barabanov, the Leafs already have 12 NHL forwards on their 2020-21 roster, so it’s no surprise that the team didn’t qualify those aforementioned players. With roughly $54M tied up in those forwards, the team is more concerned about using the limited funds left to resign Ilya Mikheyev and Travis Dermott, who were extended qualifying offers to earlier this week.

You could make a case that the Leafs could resign Gauthier, Bracco, Rodrigues and Veronneau and keep them with the Toronto Marlies if they needed to, but it feels like the right time to move on from each of them.

Leafs Let Gauthier, Bracco, Rodrigues and Veronneau Walk

Frederick Gauthier

• Position: Centre
• Age: 25 years old
• NHL Career Stats: 13 goals, 31 points (168 Games Played)
• Career Trajectory: NHL 4th Line Centre/Fringe Player

Freddie “The Goat” Gauthier was beloved in Toronto. He was a player that loved Chipotle, puzzles, wore fedoras and was always smiling. Unfortunately, he just isn’t an amazing hockey player.

Drafted 21st overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Gauthier has now been in the organization for seven years. With Jason Spezza, Pierre Engvall, Adam Brooks and Denis Malgin currently signed for the 2020-21 season, there just wasn’t any room to re-sign him, so the “Goat” experiment is officially over.

Max Veronneau 

• Position: Right Wing
• Age: 24 years old
• NHL Career Stats: 2 goals, 4 points (16 Games Played)
• Career Trajectory: 1st Line AHL Winger

The 24-year-old from Ottawa, ON was given an opportunity by his hometown team to perform but was ultimately traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a minor move at the NHL Trade Deadline. Because of the pandemic, Veronneau only played three games with the Toronto Marlies, but I guess that was more than enough for the team to figure out that they didn’t want to extend him.

Veronneau has played a few games in the NHL but it doesn’t feel like he’ll be back there anytime soon. If he couldn’t crack a struggling Senators roster full-time last season, it may take a few lucky breaks for him to get back into the league, so it makes sense that the Leafs let him walk, as they already know his potential.

Evan Rodrigues

• Position: Centre, Left Wing
• Age: 27 years old
• NHL Career Stats: 27 goals, 72 points (199 Games Played)
• Career Trajectory: NHL 3rd/4th Line Winger

Rodrigues has been a serviceable NHLer for the past few years, and the only reason I think the Leafs didn’t extend him is because of money. The team would have loved to see him get a chance at Training Camp, but they obviously do not want to match the $2M he was making last season.

Rodrigues may still re-sign at a salary more befitting his abilities, but he may also trick another team into overpaying for him in free agency.

Jeremy Bracco

• Position: Right Wing
• Age: 23 years old
• NHL Career Stats: N/A (0 NHL Games Played)
• Career Trajectory: 1st Line AHL Winger/Third-Line NHL winger (If everything goes right)

Bracco has all of the talent in the world but unfortunately for whatever reason he hasn’t been able to graduate to the NHL.

The Leafs had a good draft and will continue to assemble a team for next season it just won’t include Bracco, Gauthier, Rodrigues or Veronneau.