When the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Tyler Bertuzzi to a 1-year, $5.5M contract on July 2nd, it surprised many given that he was reportedly seeking a long-term deal. Unfortunately, due to cap constraints, teams could not offer him what he was looking for, and the teams that could were nowhere close to competing.
At the time, there were reports that suggested the Leafs and Bertuzzi had discussed a long-term deal being completed in January when he was eligible to sign an extension. Of course, that was heavily dependent on the performance of the team and Bertuzzi himself. The 28-year-old struggled at the beginning of the season, but has since found a home on the second line with John Tavares. On today's 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman touched on the potential of Bertuzzi signing an extension in January.
While Friedman noted that he does not expect Bertuzzi and the Leafs to agree on an extension immediately, he did not rule out that the two sides could look to work on a deal before the end of the season, so that's certainly good news.
While there have been many detractors saying that Bertuzzi would not be worth a long-term investment, he has been able to provide exactly what the top-six needed in Toronto. Not only has he brought the sandpaper, but he has brought the compete level that had been missing in the corners and in front of the net and he has finally begun to find his scoring touch as well. A 7 or 8-year deal may be too long of a commitment for the Leafs when it comes to Bertuzzi, but something in the 4 to 5-year range would be a lot more manageable, depending on the AAV.
