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Brad Treliving had a bit more time to prepare and put a plan together for his second summer as Toronto Maple Leafs GM. Just over one year ago, Treliving was hired only a few weeks before the NHL Draft in Nashville and was even prevented of being on the floor of Bridgestone Arena by his former club for the first round, and had to deal with a difficult roster situation, not only with players entering the final years of their contracts, but with players set to hit the open market and what to do to fill the holes on the roster.
The Leafs could not keep Ryan O’Reilly, Luke Schenn (both who signed long-term deals with Nashville), Noel Acciari (who signed with Pittsburgh), and chose not to re-sign Michael Bunting (Carolina), Alex Kerfoot (Arizona), Justin Holl, Zach Aston-Reese (Detroit), and Erik Gustafsson (New York), and revamped their lineup with some players that were successful and added to the club and some that were not.
Here is an evaluation of the free-agent signings made last July:
Tyler Bertuzzi – 1 year, $5.5 million
Bertuzzi’s season was a mixed bag. The first half was a major disappointment, as the former Wings and Bruins winger could not find the mark and mesh with linemates. That cleared up just before the All-Star break and in the second half, he may have been the second-best player on the Leafs next to Auston Matthews.
Grade – B+
Max Domi – 1 year, $3 million
Domi was quicker to settle in than Bertuzzi, but his issue was more where to play him in the lineup. He switched from wing to center, top line to third line, and only became truly effective when he partnered with Bertuzzi and Matthews. His playmaking ability and speed on the wing made him a good addition, which is one of the reasons why the Leafs extended him on a four-year deal.
Grade – A-
Noah Gregor – 1 year, $775,000
Coming off a career-high 10-goal season in San Jose, the Leafs brought in the speedy winger on a professional tryout. While not spectacular at camp, Gregor won a fourth-line job and allowed them to trade the more expensive Sam Lafferty to Vancouver, but that turned out not to be a good move, as Lafferty is more versatile and scored a career-high 13 goals, while Gregor’s highlight was scoring Toronto’s first goal of the season, but did not have many others the rest of the season.
Grade – C
Ryan Reaves – 3 years, $4.05 million (1.35 million AAV)
It's understandable that Treliving would want to bring in someone physical to protect his stars and keep the opposition honest, but that player has to be able to play, and frankly, for the first half, Reaves was embarrassingly bad. It got better after the All-Star break when his presence on the ice did not result in an automatic goal against, but the 37-year-old has two more years on his contract and he will just be getting slower.
Grade – F
Simon Benoit – 1 year, $775,000
After playing 78 games for a bad Anheim club, Benoit was brought in as a depth option on a one-year deal. The Leafs put him on waivers early in the season, but when he got a chance to play, the big 25-year-old stuck up for teammates and dropped the gloves when needed, laid the body on occasion, developed some chemistry with Jake McCabe, and ended up by the end of the season playing in the top-four, which led to Treliving signing him to a three-year extension.
Grade – A
John Klingberg – 1 year, $4.15 million
The signing made sense in that the Leafs needed a right-shot defenseman and someone who could take the power play quarterback burden off of Morgan Rielly, but his hip injury knocked Klingberg out for the rest of the season before we knew how good he would’ve fit in.
Grade – Incomplete
Martin Jones – 1 year, $875,000
Jones was brought in to be the disaster third goalie and because of the way the Leafs structured a bonus in his deal, they were able to slip him through waivers. This signing paid off big time in December and January when Joseph Woll was hurt and Ilya Samsonov was suffering from a broken psyche.
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