What Should the Toronto Maple Leafs Do With Their UFAs?

Joel Edmundson

Edmundson was acquired at the deadline and brings many ‘intangibles’ like being a physical big-bodied veteran defender who has won a cup. His stint in Toronto was not too bad, he was as advertised and for the cost of a third and fourth, it wasn’t a major investment but, he didn’t stand out as a must-have on the backend.

Unfortunately for him, the Leafs have a logjam on the left-side with Rielly, McCabe, and Benoit all under contract for next season and I don’t see him displacing any of them.

His contract projection puts him around $1.7 million for two years and I would not take it. Intangibles or not, he would not be more than a seventh defender on this team and Treliving should not allocate that much money to a depth defender.

Mark Giordano

Although nothing has come out, it seems like Giordano is unlikely to re-sign in Toronto.

He has been a stabilizing veteran defender for the Leafs and took a Jason Spezza-esque hometown discount at $750K for the past two seasons. This past season he was the oldest active player at 40 years old and sadly he saw a decline this season. He played in only 46 games in the regular season and zero playoff games. This is due to a mixture of stacking injuries and healthy scratches.

At this point, it seems likely that Giordano retires or chooses to sign another one-year league minimum contract in Toronto or elsewhere. There is still plenty of time for something to get done but the lack of news seems to indicate that Giordano is likely done in Toronto either way.