3 Big-Name Free Agents That the Toronto Maple Leafs Should Pursue, 2 to Avoid

3 Big-Name Free Agents to Pursue

Sam Reinhart 

For Sam Reinhart, he has always had the utmost potential to become a top-end player in the league when he was selected second overall by the Buffalo Sabres back in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

After a strong and promising career in juniors, Reinhart clearly established himself as a true winner when he played a major part on Canada’s 2013 World Under-18 Championship winning team, their 2015 World Juniors Hockey Championship winning team and their 2016 World Hockey Championship winning team.

However, Reinhart never seemed to be able to find his footing to become a consistent dominant force with the Sabres despite spending over seven seasons with the club.

His best year with the Sabres came in 2018-19 when he registered 22 goals and 43 assists for 65 points while playing all 82 games that season. Unfortunately, Reinhart failed to lead Buffalo to the playoffs throughout his disappointing tenure with the team.

But when the Sabres finally traded Reinhart to the Florida Panthers, that was when he finally broke out and evolved into the player that many had expected him to be.

Not only did he lead the Panthers in scoring in 2023-24 with 57 goals and 94 points, he has played a tremendous role in helping the team to the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, including runs to the Stanley Cup finals in the last two.

With his explosion in offense and potential in recent years, Reinhart will indeed be a hot commodity come free agency season and could end up being quite pricey. But if Mitch Marner does end up getting unloaded by the Leafs, they could be given the resources to be right there with the competition to pursue the ideal replacement for Marner.