3 Players Toronto Maple Leafs Must Re-Sign This Offseason
The Toronto Maple Leafs need to make a ton of changes, but there are still a few pending free agents that the team should re-sign.
Throughout the Toronto Maple Leafs era with Kyle Dubas in charge, the team was very good when it came to free agency. They rarely overpaid for players and were very good at bargain hunting. They were able to get the most value out of their players, but also knew when they should let "x player" walk.
You can argue that letting Zach Hyman walk was a terrible idea, but the team replaced him with Michael Bunting for one-fifth of the price, so it was the right decision. Hyman may be a 50-goal scorer who's $5.5M contract looks like a steal, but I'd rather take a 20-plus goal scorer and 60-point producer for minimum wage than Hyman for $5.5M.
With current GM Brad Treliving in command, the team screwed up tremendously spending $15M on Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, David Kampf and John Klingberg, when that money could have been spent so much wiser. Let's hope that same thing doesn't happen this offseason, but based on his track record, it probably will.
Anyway, as we look at the Leafs pending free agents, there are a lot of people who they should let walk, as showcased here, but here are three players the team should actually re-sign this offseason.
3 Players Leafs Should Re-Sign This Offseason
No. 1: Nick Robertson
I know that his production isn't at the level that his brother Jason's is, but Nick is a fantastic player and the Leafs would be dumb if they didn't re-sign the 22-year-old to a long-term contract while he's an RFA.
Robertson finished the 2023-24 campaign with 14 goals and 27 points, but played way better than his stats would suggest. On a per minute basis, he was only behind Auston Matthews, while scoring at a similar rate to William Nylander and Bobby McMann.
If he was given a full-year of minutes in the top-six, there's no reason to believe that Robertson won't be a 30-goal scorer and potentially 70-point player.
His shot is the second best on the team, next to Auston Matthews, and he finds himself in the right situations offensively, but has been snake-bitten.
Robertson finished the playoffs with zero points in six games, but it wasn't because of his lack of effort. Instead, it was because of his ice-time. In seven games, his most TOI was 10:55, which is crazy, since the Leafs had such a hard time scoring.
You would think it would be a good idea to put one of your best offensively skilled players on the ice if you want to generate offense, but Sheldon Keefe continued to sit Robertson when he could have helped.
Speaking of Keefe, now that he's no longer here, it's quite possible that a new coach will see what Keefe was missing.
Hopefully that new coach is an offensively-minded one because Robertson will shine with a coach who allows him the freedom to be himself and generate chances. Robertson is not a player who's suited in the bottom-six but instead needs top-six minutes to do his work, so the Leafs need to re-sign him, not only because he'll be impactful, but because he'll be a cheap addition to the team's top-six.
No. 2: Timothy Liljegren
I feel like Liljegren has fallen in a similar category to Robertson, continuing to get unfair criticism throughout his tenure with the Leafs. However, when you watch the tape and breakdown his numbers, they're much better than you'd think.
Liljegren was arguably the Leafs second-best defenseman this year and continues to be a reliable right-shot defenseman that is very useful.
The one problem with being the Leafs second best defenseman is that he's not a top-two defenseman on a winning hockey team and needs to be slotted in a second or third pairing role to be most effective.
So with that being said, the Leafs would be silly to get rid of Liljegren, when he's still an RFA and will be very affordable. As mentioned, Liljegren isn't a defenseman that you want to build your roster around, but right-shot defenseman are hard to come by and he's not a player that is going to hurt your team.
Liljegren was the best defenseman at moving the puck up quickly and was the best skater, maybe next to Morgan Rielly, so he's not a player you want to give away for free.
The 25-year-old has continued to develop each year and seems to get better with age. With less than 200 NHL games under his belt, Liljegren will only get better next year and the Leafs would actually be best suited at signing him to a five-year extension, then they would letting him walk away.
Trust me, this is just the beginning of Liljegren's growth and he's going to be an impactful player on the blue-line for the next decade.
No. 3: Ilya Lyubushkin
Lyubushkin and the Leafs are the perfect fit and his presense always seems to make Morgan Rielly better, which is hard to do.
Over the past few years, Rielly has struggled to find a reliable defensive partner, but Lyubushkin has seemed to do that job great in his two duties in Toronto.
Lyubushkin does everything you want out of your defenseman in the playoffs. He hits, blocks shots and most importantly isn't on the ice for opponents goals, as he finished with a plus-four rating in seven games against Boston. I know plus/minus is a dumb statistic but it is a nice tool to show in a small sample size in the playoffs.
Although I think that the Leafs should re-sign Lyubushkin, it will come down to price. If he's looking at a contract over $3M AAV, then I'm going to have to pass.
Lyubushkin is a nice piece to re-sign but he's not going to make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. But he's tough and a decent bottom-pairing option.
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He makes sense at a cheap contract, but the team should not make a large investment in Lyubushkin, as that would be bad salary-cap management.