No. 1: Wayne Simmonds
I loved the acquisition of Simmonds and the idea of bringing in a player who can score, fight and be a leader in the room. In 38 games, he scored seven goals and added 45 penalty minutes, which was exactly what we all hoped for.
For a fourth-line winger, you really can’t ask for much more than that during the regular season.
However, during the Leafs seven games in the playoffs, I was disappointed in his play. I thought Simmonds would play a huge role in disturbing Montreal’s best players and would have a real impact on the series.
However, in the seven game series, he only had two penalty minutes, and those minutes came with 20 seconds left in Game 2. I know the NHL has changed but I thought he would have got in at least one fight to spark the team while they were down, or get in a few more scrums that would result in a coincidental penalty.
Simmonds needed to be an energy guy to get the team motivated and should have been someone that we all noticed during Game 6 and Game 7 of the series. Instead, he was invisible and didn’t play like the player we expected.
If Simmonds returns, it would only make sense at a number below $1M, but the team cannot afford to give him $1.5M again.