After a career year for Leafs forward Alexander Kerfoot that saw the the 27-year-old post 51 points in 82 games, the timing has literally never been better for the Leafs to move him. Career highs in both assists and points combined with the fact that he's entering the final year of his contract and costs just $750K in actual salary after his $1.95M bonus was paid out on July 1st makes him a desired commodity.
Another reason to move him this summer is not related to how impressive his season was, but rather, how unimpressive it was in terms of his on-ice impacts on his linemates. Apparently, Kerfoot brought down just about every single Leaf he played with. The only players who didn't completely implode in terms of CF% and xGF% were Auston Matthews and Kyle Clifford.
Possession metrics are not the end all be all of what makes a player good or bad, but when you turn to the eye test, Kerfoot didn't exactly fair much better last season. He bounced around the lineup frequently and when the coaching staff couldn't find a consistent spot for him where his presence wasn't a hinderance to his linemates, they began moving other players around as well - most notably, William Nylander, who had shifted down to line 3 on a number of occasions to play with David Kampf and fellow Swede Pierre Engvall.
Kerfoot's perceived value based off of his production alone is likely much higher than his actual value to the Leafs at this point, and I firmly believe that Leafs GM Kyle Dubas will do everything he can to get the best return possible for Kerfoot if and when he moves him. One thing I will say - I'll be shocked if Kerfoot is a Leaf after July 13th.
