No. 5: Sonny Milano
Milano might be best-known for his baseball goal he scored from Trevor Zegras last year, but he’s more than that one highlight.
Milano’s a player who bounced around the AHL before finally finding a full-time job in the NHL last year with the Anaheim Ducks, where he scored 14 goals and had 34 points.
After finally getting the chance to play every night, Milano proved that he belongs in the NHL and can actually contribute. However, for whatever reason, the Ducks didn’t even qualify him and now he’s a UFA.
Speaking of left-winger UFA’s, It doesn’t make any sense to me that Milano wasn’t qualified, but Ilya Mikheyev, who’s one year older than Milano, who scored 21 goals and had 32 points just signed a four-year deal at $4.75M AAV.
Milano could be a perfect replacement for Mikheyev at a fraction of the price and could probably put up the same point-production as Mikheyev did in Toronto, if he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
I’d expect a few teams to line up for Milano’s services, but Toronto should pitch him that he’ll have a great shot at top-six minutes beside John Tavares and William Nylander and if he takes a discount to come here, it’ll pay dividends to him in the future, exactly like it just did to Mikheyev.
In terms of value opportunities, Milano seems like a no-brainer for the Toronto Maple Leafs to target.