3 Cheap Forwards the Toronto Maple Leafs Could Still Sign
By Marco Rovere
As the Toronto Maple Leafs head into a different era under new General Manager Brad Treliving, the team is looking to change it’s identity.
Both Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi are officially Toronto Maple Leafs, making the team’s forward group as dangerous and talented as it’s ever looked on paper.
Although the team added TSN’s 2nd ranked player on their free agency frenzy board, the team still has tons of holes to fill, and that starts in the net, continuing onto their bottom six and finishing with an entire pair on their back end.
As of this post, it feels like the team expects several internal options already signed to the team, whether under rookie contracts or others, to take a leap and play important minutes, as the team is currently listed as having exactly $0 in cap space.
For the sake of this post, though, we’re going to act as if the team has already found a way to open up space, whether it be with future trades, buyouts, retirements, or unexpected LTIR candidates emerging out of thin air, to add more players.
Candidates to move would be players like TJ Brodie, Matt Murray, and Mark Giordano, who have all been discussed as players who could be on their way out of Toronto in different scenarios. Assuming something happens with players like that, let’s get creative and find some names the Maple Leafs could add on the cheap that could add plenty to a roster that needs all the help they can get.
Following Free Agent Frenzy, plenty of top names are still looking for new homes for the 2023-24 season, and among them are big names with checkered pasts who could make a big impact in a lesser role in a top-scoring team.
Names like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Vladimir Tarasenko are still open for the taking, but for this post, we’re only going to discuss the ones the Leafs could realistically do work if a few million dollars became available for them.
Here are three names who the Blue and White could realistically look to add from now till the start of the 2023-24 season. Remember, the name of the game is finding forwards who are cheap, affordable, and can play the right role, not the best player available or forward with the most points praying they’d take a massive pay cut.