The Toronto Maple Leafs top-four defensive unit is set, but their bottom pair is still in question right now.
For the first time in what feels like forever, the Toronto Maple Leafs defense wasn’t their issue last year. A mixture of seven players played the majority of the season and they all played very well.
When Zach Bogosian was signed last offseason, many fans questioned it. After getting put on waivers by the Buffalo Sabres, then winning a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning a few months later, many people weren’t sure which Bogosian the Leafs were getting.
Fortunately, they got the guy who played depth minutes with the Lightning, as Bogosian was a steal last year at a $1M cap-hit.
Toronto needs to find another Bogosian this offseason. They need a depth player who is willing to take little money, who can provide valuable minutes on the third-pair. That’s easier said then done, but that should be one of the priorities for the Leafs this summer.
Toronto is still an important hockey market and somewhere players want to play, despite the little playoff success this team has shown. This team has continued to recruit such veterans as Joe Thornton, Jason Spezza, Patrick Marleau and Wayne Simmonds, and it feels like no player has ever said a bad thing about the organization or the core of this roster.
Every individual who dawns the blue-and-white falls in love with being a Maple Leaf and is extremely disappointed when the team doesn’t have the result many hoped. Hopefully the team can use that to their advantage, as they look to recruit another veteran this offseason.
Here are three veteran UFA defenseman that Toronto should target in the offseason.