The Toronto Maple Leafs will have some tough decisions to make this summer, with the almost inevitable departure of Alex Kerfoot being one of them.
While he clearly gets the job done, Alex Kerfoot is paid a little too much for a rather undefined role in the Toronto Maple Leafs forward group.
However, he’s doing the team a favour by quietly putting together a career year that makes his $3.5 million cap hit seem a little less daunting for another team to take on.
Perhaps the challenging part of this is that as of July 1st, Alex Kerfoot will be submitting a 10-team no trade list to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto Maple Leafs Reaping The Benefits Of Alex Kerfoot Right Now
This season is already the best year that Alex Kerfoot has had in the NHL. He currently has 46 points to his name, outdoing his previous best season total of 43 points as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.
While his 11 goals so far isn’t about to out-do his best goal total of 19 in a year, he has already eclipsed his assist total with 35 thus far this year.
His 19 goal season was the result of a unsustainable shooting percentage of 24.56%, whereas this year’s 10.11% rests right around his average in the NHL.
When you look at the players across the league on comparable deals, Alex Kerfoot stands out as one of the better options at his contract price.
J.T. Compher in Colorado is on a near-identical deal yet hasn’t offered anywhere near the level of production the Toronto Maple Leafs get from Kerfoot. He has 23 points this year; exactly half Kerfoot’s total for the same cap hit.
Bryan Rust in Pittsburgh and former Leaf winger Andreas Johnsson in New Jersey also compare relatively closely contract-wise.
Rust is offering better returns at more than a point-per-game but finds his deal expiring this summer, while Johnsson hasn’t been able to match his his 43-point 2018-19 season with the Leafs.
The point is that among those with similar contract structures, Alex Kerfoot stands out as one of the better options.
This should make his contract moveable for the Toronto Maple Leafs this summer. Not that the team necessarily wants to move on, but more so because they find their hands tied with the salary cap only increasing by $1 million.
Even with Phil Kessel’s $1.2 million retention coming off the cap, the Leafs still find themselves needing to move players in order to renew key players.
With Kerfoot’s contract offering good value and his production having stepped up a gear, the Leafs need to ensure they get the right reward for trading him. Perhaps this means making a deal on draft day, rather than holding out into the pre-season.
Either way, he’s setting them up nicely to reap decent rewards. By producing at his current pace while not being paid an unreasonable amount (on most teams anyway), he is very much as asset that other teams should have interest in.
Kyle Dubas, of course, is going to find himself judged on any Kerfoot trade as it becomes another branch on the Nazem Kadri trade tree.
If he isn’t able to get a decent return, Toronto Maple Leafs fans won’t shy away from pointing out that Kerfoot was a piece of that Kadri trade and it was essentially a flop. Especially given Kadri’s point total this season and the lackluster showing of Tyson Barrie in blue-and-white.
It’s going to be intriguing to see how the Leafs handle the Kerfoot situation this summer. In the meantime, hopefully he can maintain his regular-season form and with any luck, help the team clear that first hurdle (at the very least) in the playoffs.