No. 2: Give Entry Level Contract Players a Chance
The Toronto Maple Leafs missed an opportunity to win a cup while Matthews, Marner and Nylander were on their Entry Level Contract’s. However, there are still a few other players in their organization who could outperform their contract and give the Leafs a huge advantage.
It’s hard to believe but Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin only have one year left on their Entry Level Contract’s before they become Restricted Free Agent’s next year. As such, both of these young defenseman need to play as much as possible.
Sandin has shown potential in becoming a top-four defenseman, while that statement is still unclear with Liljegren. Toronto needs to give him his legitimate opportunity this year, or it feels like they never will.
Not only are Sandin and Liljegren young defenseman who could make an impact on a cheap deal, but Adam Brooks, Nick Robertson and Joey Anderson are three forwards who could be everyday NHLers next year.
All three forwards are making less than $800K, so if they’re given an opportunity to play everyday and excel, it would open up salary cap space for this team at the NHL Trade Deadline.
In order to win a Stanley Cup, you need to save every penny and you need an Entry Level Contract to play like a $5M player. As such, Toronto needs to give a big opportunity to those five players to open up as much cap space as possible for a deadline acquisition.