The Toronto Maple Leafs are entering this off-season with an estimated $18 million in capspace (according to Capfriendly.com).
Ironically, that's about the same amount of money that Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving had to spend last summer.
Let's hope he does better this year.
The money the Leafs have to spend will probably be eaten up on some key additions to the blueline, leaving little to add to the teams forward depth. Fortunately, there are quite a few intriguing options in the 2024 Free Agency “bargain bin” which could help the Leafs find useful players who may be undervalued.
There are many reasons players could be undervalued, like through past injuries or poor performance. Exploiting this fact has paid off in spades in recent years with players like Anthony Duclair, Dylan Strome, and Jonathan Drouin being major examples of players who have been able to provide surplus value to their teams on short-term low-AAV contracts.
Of course, investing in these players can prove to be risky which makes their value drop on the open market. However, these players are intriguing for cap-strapped teams who need to extract as much value out of their players as possible.
I have highlighted a few players that piqued my interest when searching through Capfriendly’s 2024 free agent list. (stats naturalstattrick.com).