Toronto Maple Leafs: Does Rasmus Sandin Have Any Leverage?

The more restricted free agent defensemen sign deals, the more the Toronto Maple Leafs have leverage with their own restricted free agent, Rasmus Sandin.

Oliver Kylington has just cost the Calgary Flames $2.5 million per season, Ethan Bear is costing the Carolina Hurricanes $2.2 million per season and Adam Boqvist is costing the Columbus Blue Jackets $2.6 million per season.

All of those names have seen more NHL ice-time than Rasmus Sandin has with the Toronto Maple Leafs and as such, his leverage is at somewhat of a low.

His agent, who he shares with William Nylander, who infamously held out to the last minute on his restricted free agent negotiations, will be hard-pressed to make arguments for more money that Ethan Bear, for example.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Still Need Rasmus Sandin

Perhaps the only leverage that Rasmus Sandin and his agent have is the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs likely don’t really want to lose their 2018 first-round pick.

The challenge they face though is that he’ll likely want some level of assurance that he will be utilized by the team in a decent NHL role moving forward.

With only Justin Holl coming off the salary cap at the season’s end, it’s going to prove very challenging for the Toronto Maple Leafs to assure him of any real role.

In fact, you have to think that Kyle Dubas hoped that Sandin would simply follow his fellow countryman’s lead and ink an identical deal to Timothy Liljegren this summer.

To secure Liljegren and Sandin on matching $1.4 million per season deals would’ve absolutely been a successful summer of renewals for Kyle Dubas.

Instead, he now finds himself locked in somewhat of a stalemate, not able to give Rasmus Sandin what he wants – a guaranteed role in the NHL. Nor is he able to offer him the money he might want without completing other transactions to free up cap space.

None of the mentioned deals around the league should be held as comparable to Rasmus Sandin. Thankfully, this should see the Toronto Maple Leafs able to seek a renewal under $2 million per season.

Take Oliver Kylington, for example, he has 168 NHL games to his name now and has tallied 47 points in that span. Based on his average ice-time with the Flames last season, he was their number four defenseman.

Ethan Bear really is the fairest comparison given he saw the sixth most average ice-time among  Carolina Hurricanes defensemen. Rasmus Sandin saw himself the sixth most utilized Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman also.

The difference between Bear and Sandin though is that at 25 years old, Bear has 190 NHL games behind him. Sandin is three years younger and hasn’t yet hit a century of NHL games. All contract details per CapFriendly.

That is enough of a difference to ensure that the Toronto Maple Leafs can leverage Ethan Bear’s latest contract to their advantage. Sandin surely can’t truly seek the same salary as someone with over double the NHL games as him.