With the hockey world on pause after play was suspended last month, it is uncertain whether the NHL’s 2019-20 regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be completed, but the league shutdown has not stopped clubs from doing whatever business they can (including signing prospects to entry-level contracts and free agents from the KHL) and potentially formulating plans after the year with the financial losses affecting the salary cap over the next couple seasons.
Over the next few weeks, we will look at a number of potential roster scenarios involving the Toronto Maple Leafs and gauge how GM Kyle Dubas may address the situation. Today we will look at the Leafs up the middle, specifically center Alex Kerfoot and his future with the club.
The 25-year-old was signed as a free agent by Colorado after four seasons at Harvard University and scored 40+ points in consecutive seasons before being dealt last July along with Tyson Barrie to Toronto for Nazem Kadri. Kerfoot was quickly signed to four-year, $14 Million contract extension.
The Vancouver native started the season centering the Leafs third line, missed five games in November due to dental fractures, struggled offensively mid-season and shifted to the wing after injuries to Ilya Mikheyev and Andreas Johnsson. Kerfoot appeared more effective up the middle than along the wall and when the year was halted had 28 points (9 goals, 19 assists) in 65 games.
The Leafs will be facing some difficult decisions before next season with the salary cap likely not going up from $81.5 Million and nearly $77 Million allocated towards 16 players. Dubas has to re-sign RFA blueliner Travis Dermott and winger Ilya Mikheyev to extensions and find at least one veteran to replace Barrie and Cody Ceci on the right side.
Kerfoot’s $3.5 Million cap hit is a good value and with Auston Matthews and John Tavares signed long-term, it gives Toronto quality for the foreseeable future. The club’s cap crunch may require one of two possible courses of action.
1) Trade Kerfoot to open up cap space for a comparably priced defenseman who could replace the Leafs departing veterans or for a draft pick that would allow Dubas to acquire blueline help in a separate deal. This would be possible if Toronto is confident that Jason Spezza will re-sign for another year and rookie Pierre Engvall or Adam Brooks can handle third-or-fourth line center at the NHL level on a consistent basis.
2) Keep Kerfoot and deal either Johnsson or Kasperi Kapanen (who have $3+ Million cap hits) if you are more confident that the options on the wing for next season (Mikheyev, Alexander Barabanov. Jeremy Bracco, Nick Robertson) are stronger than the options up the middle.
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