The Toronto Maple Leafs should use their cap space to sign unrestricted free agent defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brent Burns.
We all know the Toronto Maple Leafs have two holes to fill in their top six with the potential losses of Mitch Marner and John Tavares, but should they really overspend in free agency to replace them? The team could spend a lot of money on Nikolaj Ehlers or Sam Bennett but will they really help get this team over the hump?
In my opinion, those two additions feel like overpayments and the team should double-down on their defense, making it one of the biggest and hardest to play against in the NHL, because if they can make that the strength of their game, they will be a better playoff team.
Aaron Ekblad is probably going to fetch between $8-10 million a year in free agency, while Brent Burns probably won't get more than $4M on a one-year deal, so for the same price of Marner, the team can really improve their defensive core. Burns may not be the number one defenseman that he was once, but Ekblad can be the team's first legitimate number one defenseman in 25 years, while Burns will be motivated to win a Stanley Cup with his hometown team.
The Barrie, Ont. native grew up an hour away from Toronto, so that hometown ties could a way to bring him back. It worked with Joe Thornton, Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds, so the same thing could be applied to Burns, who's 6-foot-5, 225-pound frame on the blue-line would be loved in Toronto.
I know that the Leafs are locked into Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Simon Benoit next year, but you'd make room for Ekblad and Burns, who would turn this really good defensive group into the best in the NHL.
You would still need to fill some room in the team's top six, but buying out either David Kampf, Ryan Reaves and/or Calle Jarnkrok's contract can help gain even more cap space. Whether it's a trade or still through free agency, the Leafs have a really strong chance to change the DNA of their team with a trade or free agency.
They don't need to go big-game fishing with Bennett or Ehlers, but for half the price could find some veteran talent in either Matt Duchene, Jamie Benn, Patrick Kane or Brad Marchand. Realistically, the Leafs only need to fix the following X's:
Knies-Matthews-Domi
Cowan-X-Nylander
McMann-Laughton-Jarnkrok
X-Kampf-Holmberg
You would obviously want to upgrade that third-line and push Cowan to the third-line, but all they really need to do is acquire a second-line centre and top-six winger and the forward group settles in nicely. You can also shed Kampf's contract and find two players for the price of one who can play fourth-line minutes if you're a good GM, so. this team doesn't have to do a lot more than they we think. If they added Ekblad and Burns this is what their defense could look like too:
McCabe-Tanev
Rielly-Ekblad
Burns-Carlo
Extras: Ekman-Larsson/Benoit
Burns is also a right-shot defenseman, so playing him on his other side may not be ideal, but that's something you deal with if you can acquire both Ekblad and Burns. This is probably a pipedream but if that's an insane group of defenseman who are physical but can also generate some offense with Rielly, Ekblad and Burns.
When you have Matthews and Nylander leading the team offensively, that should be good enough, but in my opinion, you can never be too deep or strong defensively, so the Leafs should go all-in on defense in free agency.