No. 3: Luke Glendening
For the past two-three years, it feels like Luke Glendening has been rumored to the Leafs, but it’s never transpired. It was mentioned that Mike Babcock loved his play during his time with the Detroit Red Wings, but Toronto never ended up trading for him.
Now that he’s a free agent, Glendening could be a good fit on Toronto’s third-line.
When it comes to Glendening’s game, his particularly great at two things. Blocking shots and winning faceoff’s. Other than that, he’s not going to provide much offense, but he does set up very well as an effective penalty-killer.
At 32-years-old, he may be better suited as fourth-line centre, but on Toronto’s current roster, he could suit the third-line. Toronto’s third-line during Sheldon Keefe’s time has been looked at as the shutdown trio, who can match the opposition. If that’s what the team wants to do again next year, Glendening can fill that void.
Also, another reason why the Toronto Maple Leafs may want to pursue him is because of his price-tag. Based on his past salary and the type of player he is, you can probably sign him for $1M or less. With those amount of savings on a third-line centre, the Leafs can easily go out and sign another top-six left-winger or two, depending on how they evaluate Nick Robertson.
If they think Robertson can be a top-six forward, then they can sign a decently-priced UFA defenseman instead and build the entire roster out better.
If Toronto signed Glendening, he wouldn’t hurt the team that much, but he wouldn’t provide a ton offensively like Bonino could who we previously spoke about. Either way, any of these three players could be effective players on the Leafs third-line.