The Toronto Maple Leafs are playing well right now, with 17 games remaining in their season. They will be getting prepared for a first-round playoff series with either the Boston Bruins or Florida Panthers.
The Toronto Maple Leafs ended their first-round curse last season with a series win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, they followed that up with a disappointing second-round loss to the Florida Panthers. The Leafs have a good mix of players suited for playoff hockey, but will it be enough? Let's hope so.
I would like to see the Leafs win with this group. The Leafs appear to have a close-knit team who battle for each other. Obviously, a trip to the Stanley Cup final is the ultimate goal, but I think the Leafs need to make it to the Eastern Conference Final before they will be taken seriously as a contender. The Leafs first goal is to make it to the second round, but they'll need to go further to prove the doubters wrong.
When you look at the Leafs roster and see how many contracts will expire this summer, it is clear that this will be a different group next season. Due to the salary cap, a player's age, or Treliving's need to shake things up, the Leafs will see significant change this off-season. The defense and goaltending will see the most change.
Toronto Maple Leafs 2024 Off-Season
The recently re-signed forward Bobby McMann to a two-year contract worth $1.35 million. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) this summer. Unless the Leafs re-sign any more players, they will have seven players from their active roster becoming UFAs this summer. That number jumps up to 11 if you include the players on LTIR. Some of these players won't be missed, but others have been key contributors to the Leafs this season.
The list of UFAs for the Leafs includes forwards Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi, defensemen T.J. Brodie, Joel Edmundson, Ilya Lyubushkin, Mark Giordano, Conor Timmins, John Klingberg, and Jake Muzzin (Retired), goaltenders Ilya Samsonov, Martin Jones and Matt Murray. The Leafs RFAs are forwards Connor Dewar, Nick Robertson, Noah Gregor, and defensemen Timothy Liljegren and Simon Benoit.
Before any players listed above get re-signed, the Leafs currently have $20.55 million available for the off-season. Leafs GM Brad Treliving will need to use that cap space wisely. He didn't have the most successful off-season in his first summer as Leafs GM, but now he's had a whole season to figure out what he wants to do next. I can see him re-signing the Leafs RFAs, but I don't expect many of the Leafs UFAs to re-sign. (Salary cap information from: capfriendly.com)
For the right price, I would like to see Domi and Bertuzzi re-signed, but only after Treliving finds a proper top-two defenseman to play as Morgan Rielly's defense partner. I will be an entertaining off-season, that's for sure. For now, let's get to the playoffs and enjoy the ride.