5 Defenseman Toronto Maple Leafs Must Sign In Free Agency

It's no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs need to go big-game hunting for a UFA defenseman (or three) this offseason.

Throughout history, the Toronto Maple Leafs have not done a great job at acquiring top defensive talent via free agency. Whether it was John Klingberg or Mike Komisarek as bad examples, you have to go all the way back to Borje Salming to find a legitimate stud they found in free agency.

There's a reason why it's so hard to find that marquee defenseman via free agency. It's because teams have a hard time letting those types of players get to free agency because they're so valuable.

The same thing applies to goalies and it's why there have been three monster netminder trades this offseason already, compared to acquiring these players via free agency.

Although it's harder to find that top-tier defenseman via free agency versus trade, there's a lot of quality defenders in the 2024 UFA class.

There isn't an elite defender who wiill contend for a Norris Trophy, but there are still some solid pieces that will help the depth and legitimize a team's top-four.

Personally, I still think the Leafs need to trade one of their top forwards so they can acquire that number-one defenseman, but if the team can acquire two of the top-five UFA defenseman, it'll set them up well to contend next year.

Anyway, here are five UFA defenseman the Toronto Maple Leafs must try to sign this offseason.