Did The leafs Give up too soon on Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson?
In the age of the Core 4, we have had to say good bye to a lot of middle six and bottom six players. You see the debates all the time. They dropped the ball on this guy, or that guy. That was a terrible trade or signing. I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line, everyone became cap experts. The narrative that we shouldn't have traded someone or signed an inexpensive winger to replace that player is growing tired, so I'll simply just say this. We can't keep everyone.
I believe Kasperi Kapanen would be a solid top six player on today's leafs team. He is a reasonable cap hit at $3.2 million and has great speed, a feisitness to his game that would fit in well with the likes of Michael Bunting and Wayne Simmonds over someone like, say, Nick Ritchie, who is not as fleet-of-foot and leaves a lot to be desired a lot of nights.
Also it has to be said Kapanen was a good penalty killer during his time in Toronto and often produced quality short-handed opportunities.
I don't know what led to his exodus, other than the cap crunch. There has been some speculation that Kapanen was a bit of an off-ice distraction, but nothing that can be substantiated, so we'll leave that out of the discussion.
My personal take here is they definitely did give up on Kapanen too soon, given his skill set and otherworldly speed. I'd love to have him on our current roster.
Andreas Johnsson, on the other hand, is the opposite. While he did come out the gates hot this season with the Devils, he has cooled to the point that I am not sure I would even want him on our 4th line.
In his past 11 games he has 1 secondary assist and is a -8 over that stretch. I don't see a place for him on any line in Toronto and believe that the Leafs were correct to cut ties.
In this market we scrutinize every game like its Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and what Johnsson has done (or has not done) over these past few weeks would see him ostracized by the fanbase, much like what we're seeing now with Justin Holl.
While Johnsson can turn it on for stretches, his 30 points in his last 86 games, has me feeling pretty good about the Leafs having moved on and turning him into a usable asset in Joey Anderson, who still has plenty of upside.
In closing, losing Kapanen isn't ideal but who knows? Maybe Amirov will be a star in the future for the Leafs. I'm intrigued enough to want him in Toronto with the development staff there sooner than later.
We all know cap space is king on this team, and I for one have zero issues with the Johnsson for Anderson move on any level. Johnsson's comparable on the current Leafs team is probably Kerfoot, with less applications and utility. Put one in the win column for Kyle Dubas and call it a day.
