Young and Cheap Is the Way to Go: Leafs Must Move on From Bertuzzi and Domi

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi to one-year deals in free-agency last season.

This season, the Toronto Maple Leafs must say good-bye.

Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi are poplular, effective players who each had a half-decent season this past year.

But the Leafs must say good-bye because they have more than enough young, cheap players to fill out their lineup.

Young and Cheap Is the Way to Go: Leafs Must Move on From Bertuzzi and Domi

The best deals a team can get in free-agency are the show-me deals that occiasionally pop up for good players looking to prove something.

Domi and Bertuzzi proved to be the right players at the right time, but further committments to players approaching 30 would just be misguided.

The worst contracts in the NHL are routinely the contracts given to mid-range non-star name-brand players about to hit 30. For every Zach Hyman contract, there are dozens of David Clarkson contracts.

The Leafs would be wise to walk away from both players anyways, but the fact that they have so many young, cheap options who have earned more playing time just makes this a no-brainer.

Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Bobby McMann, Pontus Holmberg, Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan give the Leafs five players they can put in their lineup for less than $7 million dollars.

Add in the Core Four, and you have ten of the 12 forwards you need for the season. Maybe keep Connor Dewar and Calle Jarnkrok and you've got 12 solid players. The likes of Alex Steeves and Nick Abruzzese can fill in should injuries occur.

But as you can see, the Leafs really have no reason to bring back Domi or Bertuzzi. Their minutes need to go to Knies, Robertson and McMann.

The Toronto Maple Leafs biggest downfall the past several seasons has been not augmenting their core forards with young, cheap options.

Now that Robertson, Knies and McMann are all established NHL scorers, the Leafs will be able to take advantage of some cap savings. There is no point in giving those savings back by signing expensive non-stars.

Especially when those players stand to take minutes away from younger, cheaper players who might even be better. There is some risk invovled, obviously, but the Leafs need to take the savings from not signing Domi and Bertuzzi and funnel them into the blue-line.

Domi and Bertuzzi are popular but its on Brad Treliving to make the tough decisions, and this is one he can't afford to get wrong.