Recapping This Week’s 2 Crazy Toronto Maple Leafs Press Conferences
By Conrad Jack
Toronto Maple Leafs End of Season Press Conference
This Toronto Maple Leafs roster is one of the best we’ve seen in recent years, but it still didn’t have enough to make it out of the second round.
This team had everything they needed to make a case come playoff time, Luke Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly, Sam Lafferty, Jake McCabe, Erik Gustafsson, and Noel Acciari were critical additions. The contact length attached to Jake McCabe and salary retention made him even more of a critical addition, Noel Acciari and Ryan O’Reilly brought valuable playoff experience to the team.
So, where are we now? This team won a playoff series this year and exceeded expectations against the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, there is one major issue, Kyle Dubas’ replacement has less than $9,000,000 to work with next season and a ton of expiring contracts.
Alexander Kerfoot, Ryan O’Reilly, David Kampf, Noel Acciari, Michael Bunting, Wayne Simmonds, Zach Aston-Reese, Justin Holl, Luke Schenn, and Erik Gustafsson are all unrestricted free agents on July 1st, 2023. Victor Mete and Ilya Samsonov are restricted free agents with arbitration rights, Samsonov is a more worrisome contract at face value for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Other contracts set to expire next year are Auston Matthews and William Nylander, the year to follow sees John Tavares and Mitch Marner’s contracts expiring.
Luke Schenn, Erik Gustafsson, Noel Acciari, and Jake McCabe who all stated how much they hope to be back with the organization next year.
Ryan O’Reilly didn’t really make it known if he wants to test free agency this off-season or see what Toronto has to offer. While O’Reilly’s comments seem like he is leaning towards testing the free agent market on July 1st, it’s hard to say for sure.