The Toronto Maple Leafs were able to accomplish a great deal on July 1, signing veteran center Jason Spezza in free agency, adding defenseman Cody Ceci from Ottawa in a deal for Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Brown, and acquiring defenseman Tyson Barrie and center Alex Kerfoot from Colorado for Nazem Kadri, but GM Kyle Dubas still has some work to do other than getting Mitch Marner signed to a new contract.
The club did some housekeeping on Wednesday, signing Newfoundland Growlers forwards Matt Bradley, Brady Ferguson, Zach O’Brien and Scott Pooley, and defenseman Kristians Rubins.to AHL contracts, but with a number of recognizable names still unsigned on the free agent market, Dubas is likely to be looking for veterans willing to fill a particular role next season.
“We are trying to do some creative things on the edges, with players that perhaps look (at the chance to play in Toronto) as a legacy opportunity for them or look at it as a chance to rebound.” Dubas said last week. “If you are a forward, you have the ability to play with some excellent players and if you are a defenseman, you look at the opportunity and the ability to compete and think that in our marketplace, if you come in and perform, all the attention you are going to get is going to be generally positive.”
That was the case with Spezza, who took an NHL-minimum $700,000 one-year contract to play for his hometown team. The 36-year-old will likely take over as the club’s fourth line center in place of the ineffective Frederik Gauthier and see some power play time.
With Zach Hyman likely out to start the season, July 1 additions Nick Shore and Kenny Agostino, along with Nic Petan, KHLer Ilya Mikheyev, Mason Marchment and Jeremy Bracco may earn a chance to get playing time early in the season, but it is also possible that Dubas will bring in unsigned forwards on low price deals or professional tryouts closer to camp.
On defense, the top four situation has been addressed with the additions of right-handers Ceci and Barrie, but the trade of Calle Rosen and Travis Dermott’s recovery from shoulder surgery has made the bottom pairing an open competition.
As it currently stands, Martin Marincin, Kevin Gravel, Ben Harpur and Justin Holl, along with Andreas Borgman, Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin will compete for two starting and two reserve spots on the blueline at training camp. If the club is not anxious to rush their first round prospects into the lineup in favor of more seasoning in the AHL, Dubas should still be looking for a low-priced veteran addition on defense.
One area where the Leafs may need help is on the penalty-killing unit, where Ron Hainsey and Zaitsev were the top pairing and played the majority of the minutes shorthanded. Jake Muzzin will likely move into one of the spots vacated by Hainsey and Zaitsev, but there does not appear to be a good fit among the other blueliners other than Ceci to that role.
Veterans such as Adam McQuaid, Ben Lovejoy and Dan Girardi might be candidates that the Leafs can look at to solidify and add experience to their bottom pairing and buy time until Dermott returns or Liljegren/Sandin are ready.
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