What Should the Toronto Maple Leafs Do With Wayne Simmonds?

Wayne Simmonds was signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs to fulfill a very specific role and unfortunately for him; he may no longer be a fit.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs added Simmonds, he was meant to serve as the grit and aggression that would intimidate opponents and ultimately not allow the team to be pushed around in the first round.

While he has somewhat achieved that in the sense that teams do think twice as they’ll have to answer the bell with Simmonds; he no longer offers enough to be a regular even on the fourth line.

Clearly the hope when the Toronto Maple Leafs brought him in was he could bring the intangibles while also getting back to his best. After all, at his best, he was a 50 to 60 point player. Even at half his best, that’s strong numbers on the fourth line.

However, he seems to have hit a high watermark of maybe 10 to 15 points per season while significantly slowing up a fourth line that realistically the Leafs may want to see high-tempo pressure from.

It leaves the team with somewhat of a dilemma though as Wayne Simmonds is clearly a character in the locker room and does bring something that nobody else on the Leafs truly does.

Of course, with the addition of Nicolas Aube-Kubel this summer, maybe the Leafs have found his replacement in terms of offering that grit and aggression.

What remains unanswered though is what exactly the Toronto Maple Leafs do with Wayne Simmonds in the meantime. It’s not like they have the luxury of carrying a roster of 23 players and can just plant him in the press-box two to three games a week.

You have to imagine Kyle Dubas will look to do right by Simmonds. After all, he added Jason Spezza and Rich Clune to the team’s staff immediately following their retirement announcements; he seems to look after his hand-picked signings.

Looking ahead to the upcoming campaign though; there seems to only be three real options with Wayne Simmonds – play him, waive him or trade him.