Toronto Maple Leafs Re-Sign Wayne Simmonds for 2 Years

The Toronto Maple Leafs have officially re-signed Wayne Simmonds to a two-year contract extension.

After signing a one-year $1.5M deal last year, he did enough for the Toronto Maple Leafs to re-sign him to a two-year extension, worth a total of $1.8M ($900K AAV) this year. It’s a somewhat surprising move but at that price-tag, I like it.

With Simmonds now signed, the Leafs potentially have 11 forwards already locked into 12 spots next year. If Kerfoot doesn’t get drafted in the Seattle Expansion Draft, the lineup could look something like this:

• TBD-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner
• Nick Robertson-John Tavares-William Nylander
• Ilya Mikheyev-Alex Kerfoot-Pierre Engvall
• Wayne Simmonds-Adam Brooks-Jason Spezza

That’ll give Toronto roughly $10M of cap-space to sign one forward, one goalie and one defenseman. Obviously, there could be some changes coming if Kerfoot or Justin Holl are picked up in the draft, but that’s not a terrible position to be in.

Leafs Re-Sign Simmonds to Two-Year Extension

Re-signing Wayne Simmonds wasn’t a shocking move, but doing it for two years was. However, that was probably the only way they could get his AAV down below $1M, which is where he deserves to be at this point in his career.

The former 30-goal scorer is far removed from the player he was in his prime. When he was with the Philadelphia Flyers he was one of the best power-forwards in the NHL and was a force on the powerplay in front of the net. However, his role has now changed and he’s more suited for energy minutes on the fourth line.

Simmonds scored seven goals in 38 games last year and looked very effective during the first few weeks of the season, before breaking his wrist.  After returning from that injury, he didn’t look like himself and never provided Toronto with the same juice that he gave them in the first month.

However, seven goals (or a 15-goal pace in an 82 game season) is pretty effective for a fourth-liner, especially one that only makes $900K now. Simmonds, similar to Jason Spezza, more than likely took a pay-cut to return to Toronto because they’re both hometown kids and want to win here.

If Simmonds is going to give the Toronto Maple Leafs the most value for his contract, he’s going to need to perform in the playoffs. I don’t mean that he needs to score goals in the biggest games, but he does need to be more of a pest and initiate more penalties.

Whether that’s sparking a fight or running a few guys over, Simmonds needs to bring that energy this season, which was something we didn’t see a ton of in the series against Montreal.

All things considered, at $900K, this is a win-win for both parties. All aboard the Wayne Train for another two years!