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Toronto Maple Leafs Summer Plans and Important Dates

By James Tanner

TORONTO, ON - MAY 31: Auston Matthews #34 and Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs take to the ice to play against the Montreal Canadiens in Game Seven of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on May 31, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Canadiens defeated the Map[le Leafs 3-1 to win series 4 games to 3. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - MAY 31: Auston Matthews #34 and Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs take to the ice to play against the Montreal Canadiens in Game Seven of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on May 31, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Canadiens defeated the Map[le Leafs 3-1 to win series 4 games to 3. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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The Toronto Maple Leafs exited the Playoffs in the first round and then watched as their chief historical rival, the Montreal Canadiens, went on a dream run.

The Canadiens’ success should remind us that NHL results are capricious and nearly random, since the Toronto Maple Leafs clearly have the superior team in every single possible way.

Coaching, GM, Offense, Defense, special teams, roster depth, and number of star players are all categories where the Leafs are superior to the team that beat them and went on a dream run.

Matthews wrist injury, Tavares concussion, Marner’s zero percent shooting percentage, these uncontrollable and unlucky things prevented the Leafs from advancing, but they don’t make them a bad team.

Regardless, this summer the Leafs will once again look to improve and find a way to get themselves some success worth of the insane roster they’ve built on paper.  (info from NHL.com).

Toronto Maple Leafs Important Dates

The big thing on everyone’s mind this off-season is the Expansion Draft.  The Leafs – along with everyone else – will have to submit their protected list by July 17th, which is next Saturday.

The Seattle Kraken would then have three days to potentially sign any unrestricted Free Agents and make their selections.  In this period they have an exclusive window on signing any UFA players who will later come to market.

They will submit their selections by the 21st, which is a week from this Wednesday.

The next big thing after that is the NHL Entry Draft, which occurs on the 23rd and 24th, which is a week from next weekend.  The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t have a first round draft pick, but who knows, they may find a way to get back in the action.

Not that I would consider Alex Kerfoot worth a first rounder, but they somehow managed a first rounder for Kasperi Kapanen a much worse player than Kerfoot (despite the lucky shooting-percentage Kapanen experienced this season) so who knows what could happen.

After the draft, all that is left for the NHL off-season is Free Agency, which opens on July 28 (as opposed to the usual July 1st Canada Day celebration).

Free Agency should be interesting this season as who knows what will be left after the Kraken get though with it (I’m guessing most UFAs would rather join a contender, but most contenders also have cap problems).

Next. Leafs Should Pursue Tomas Tatar. dark

Overall, the Leafs don’t have much in the way of draft picks or cap space, so it may be that the most exciting dates of the Summer are whenever the Toronto Maple Leafs choose to make a trade.

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