Toronto Maple Leafs: Sign Depth Defenseman Simon Benoit

Monday morning, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced through a press release from their website that they had signed soon to be 25-year old defenseman Simon Benoit to a one-year contract.

The Toronto Maple Leafs press release stated that the contract with Benoit would carry a value of $775,000 for the 2023-24 season.

Benoit is a 6’3″, 200 lbs left handed shot defenseman that was a mainstay on the Anaheim Ducks blueline in 2022-23.  The Quebec native is a physical defenseman that averaged over 19-minutes a night last year and dished out 216 hits in 76 games.

Benoit played three seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for three seasons with the Shawinigan Cataractes, however went undrafted.  He would go on and sign an American Hockey League (AHL) contract with San Diego Gulls and after one season on a minor league contract Benoit signed a three year entry level contract with the Anaheim Ducks starting in the 2019-20 season.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Sign Depth Defenseman Simon Benoit

Benoit would get his first taste of the NHL in the 2020-21 season suiting up for six games with the Ducks.

Benoit would spend the following season as a depth defenseman with Anaheim playing in 53 games and averaging 14-minutes a night.

This past season he broke out and was averaging 20:15 of ice-time a night in the second half of the season, however was not qualified at the end of the season by the Ducks and became an unrestricted free agent.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will still have control of him at the end of the season as he will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

At the time of the signing, Benoit would likely be the eighth defenseman and similar to everyone ahead of him on the depth chart, he would need to clear waivers to be sent to the Marlies.

This could be a precursor to an eventual Toronto trade that is on the horizon as the organization is still above the salary cap by approximately $2.1 Million once Martin Jones is placed on waivers.

One trade that may hurt them in the short term, but be a necessity is moving on from TJ Brodie who only has one-year left on his contract at a $5 Million cap hit.  If Brodie is traded, that would slide Benoit into the top seven and be able to give Mark Giordano some nights off as the aging defenseman is unlikely to play in all of the games.

Benoit would most likely clear waivers if he was placed on them prior to the start of the season.