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The Toronto Maple Leafs emerge from NHL Draft weekend with three new prospects in Matthew Knies, Ty Voit and Vyacheslav Peksa and a lengthy wish list going into the free agent period that starts on Wednesday. GM Kyle Dubas spoke to the media on Saturday and clarified the situation regarding Zach Hyman and that the club is prioritizing the pursuit of a goalie before filling out their roster for next season.
“We are really just looking for the best goalie possible to come in, (to)form as good of a tandem as possible, let them get after it, push each other, support each other, and be the best duo that they can to help our team.” Dubas said. “I don’t think Jack (Campbell) needs a true mentor at this point. I think he has been through a lot throughout his career. He has great experience. He has a great disposition. I think Jack is probably more capable of mentoring somebody himself with all of his experiences and the type of year he had last year.”
Unrestricted free agency may be a minefield for the pursuit of help in net, as the competition for re-signing Frederik Andersen or adding Philippe Grubauer, Antti Raanta, Linus Ullmark, or Petr Mrazek may cost more than making a deal for goalies reportedly available like Darcy Kuemper, Alexandar Georgiev, Tristian Jarry, or Braden Holtby.
The Athletic's
Pierre LeBrun reports that the Leafs have not made an offer to Andersen with less than 48 hours left until free agent frenzy commences.
Toronto is looking for a veteran depth defenseman as a safety net for youngsters Rasmus Sandin or Timothy Liljegren, but that will not be Zach Bogosian, as
Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star reported on Twitter that Bogosian will not be returning to the Leafs.
“On the backend, looking ahead to Wednesday and the opening of free agency, we added Bogosian last year. That would be the type of player we would be looking at — one or two guys like that again.” Dubas said. “We will seek to fill those voids just in terms of penalty-killing utility and maybe more of a size-and-strength element on the backend.”
Dubas indicated that talks with Oilers GM Ken Holland have not yielded a return that would be worth the Leafs signing and trading Hyman and saving Edmonton upwards of $500,000 on the salary cap, so it is looking to be increasingly likely that the Oilers will sign the former Leaf to a seven-year deal on Wednesday.
Up front, Dubas indicated that he is still open to bringing back forwards that finished the season with the club last season, including Nick Foligno and Alex Galchenyuk.
“Aside from Hyman, the door is open on all of the free agents. There continues to be dialogue with most of them at this point. The door, I wouldn’t say, is closed to any of those players. There is nothing really new to add on the Galchenyuk or Andersen front. There has been communication with the others you asked about.”
With defensemen like Seth Jones and Rasmus Ristolainen getting traded over the weekend, and Jones, Miro Heiskanen and Cale Makar agreeing to new deals in the last week, it will be curious to see how much getting Morgan Rielly extended with one year left on his current deal.
“With regards to Morgan, there is nothing at this point. Our focus is on the expansion draft, on the draft itself, and then on free agency starting here on Wednesday. Once we see what the market bears as it continues to develop, we will have a better sample size to be able to open discussions with Morgan.”
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