The Toronto Maple Leafs lost a lot of players this off-season.
Outgoing former Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas left an incredible situation for the new GM – ten expiring contracts, which allowed him to reshape the roster however he wanted.
Unfortunately, he spent extremely poorly by overpaying replacement players like Max Domi, John Klingberg, Ryan Reaves and David Kampf.
This is going to haunt the Leafs and prevent them from being better than they could have been. Fortunately, the Leafs still have Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander, and the NHL is still a star-driven league, so it won’t matter too much.
But regardless, there is one player the Leafs are going to miss more than others.
Toronto Maple Leafs Biggest Loss of the Summer Is Obvious
2 years ago, Michael Bunting lined up alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner and proceeded to have one of the best 5v5 seasons that any player has has this century.
Bunting finished the 21-22 season with 56 5v5 points, sixth best in the NHL and higher than Connor McDavid (it was a tie, but tie goes to the guy with the most goals, which was Bunting).
That year, Bunting won his minutes by a mile, posting a 60% GF which he matched with an even more impressive 60% xGoals. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Last year, he came back down to earth a bit, but he still scored almost 40 5v5 points, which is very good, and he still posted 55% xGoals rating. Incredibly, he actually improved his results and the Leafs won his minutes by 65% when he was on the ice.
He did this all for 900K.
Unless Matthew Knies wins the Calder Trophy the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t have a hope in hell of replicating the value that Knies brought for the money he was paid. It doesn’t matter that Bunting’s high level of play was achieved by playing with two superstars. This is why they let him walk, and why it was sensible.
But not everyone can succeed in those minutes, let alone put up numbers on par with who they’re playing with. And almost no one can do it for under a million bucks – which is what the Leafs are going to miss the most.
To be very clear: Tyler Bertuzzi has never, not once, had a season as good as either of Bunting’s last two seasons. There is zero reason to consider Bertuzzi a better player at this point.
Also, Bertuzzi makes 5x more money than Bunting was paid.
It was always going to be impossible for the Leafs to replicate Bunting’s production for the money he was paid, but the fact they wasted so much cap space on Kamp, Domi, Klingberg and Reaves only makes it worse.
Here is hoping that Tyler Bertuzzi is a great member of the Toronto Maple Leafs and that he even finds time to read a book or two while he’s here, but the team is going to miss Michael Bunting more than anyone seems to be willing to admit.