#2- Filip Forsberg
Once free agency opens, agent J.P. Barry and his firm CAA Hockey will be fielding phone calls from across the league for their client, Filip Forsberg. He is going to be an enormous addition to whichever team lands him next season. The 27-year-old Swedish center has hit his stride in the NHL at just the right time.
The Nashville Predators GM, David Poile, locked down Forsberg for six-years on a contract that pays him $36 million, $6 million annually. Currently, it looks like an incredible deal. That’s because Forsberg has been on fire. Not only has he collected a total of 318 points in 533 games, but
this season, he has tucked away 37 goals and 29 assists in 54 games.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs want to add the sniper, it would come at more than just a monetary cost. Forsberg will get a monster deal in the offseason. In order to fit that new contract under the salary cap, the Leafs would need to make space for it. In fact, the most likely scenario to make things work would be for Toronto to trade William Nylander.
Taking Nylander’s $6,962,366 contract off the books would give the Leafs a lot of flexibility. If it was a move Dubas wanted to make, it would allow the team to recover valuable assets while replacing their winger with a star player like Forsberg.
Forsberg would be the Leafs second choice when free agency opens. If he was interested, the Leafs could trade Nylander to sign the top-available free agent.