Leafs reporter shares the latest on some of the team's restricted and unrestricted free agents
Everyone's curious what is about to happen with this Leafs team this summer after yet another year of disappointment. The team has already lost its GM and a fan-favourite in Jason Spezza, who vacated his position after Dubas was let go by President Brendan Shanahan, and despite what Shanahan says about wanting to bring back the entire core, a new GM may have a different idea or vision for this team. Also, there is an abundance of pending UFAs and RFAs in need of new deals this summer. Who walks? Who stays? There are plenty of questions and we are still several weeks away from any real answers it seems.
On Friday, The Athletic's Joshua Kloke revealed some details regarding what the team could be looking to do with a number of the its free agents, including the likes of Alexander Kerfoot, Ryan O'Reilly, Justin Holl, Luke Schenn and RFA netminder Ilya Samsonov, who signed a 1-year "prove it" deal last summer and is in line for a massive pay increase after a very strong regular season.
Kloke had some very interesting news for Leaf fans, revealing that he could see both Luke Schenn and Noel Acciari - the team's hit leaders throughout the playoffs - wanting to return to the team next season. Kloke also shared that the current front-runner for the Leafs' GM job, Brad Treliving, was a big fan of Schenn's game, which bodes well for a return if Treliving does last the GM job in Toronto. Kloke also mentioned that there could be a mutual interest between David Kampf and the Leafs to get a deal done that would keep the Czech center in Toronto next season and perhaps beyond as well.
In terms of the names who are likely to move on, Kloke revealed that what he's hearing for Holl and Kerfoot, it's more likely than not that these two players could move on this summer, which should be music to the ears of Leafs Nation, who have been trying to trade both of these players for years on CapFriendly's Armchair GM tool. It's not that either are particularly bad players, but more to do with the fact that their combined $5.5M in salary could have been better applied elsewhere on the roster over the last couple of seasons.
Ryan O'Reilly is another name that folks have been curious about. He really seemed to love and embrace his time in Toronto, but Kloke believes that O'Reilly may actually price himself out of Toronto, which is quite disappointing to hear. At 32 years old, O'Reilly isn't in that place yet where a series of $1M-$2M deals is plausible. He may yet cash in on another deal in excess of $5M per season. That might be too pricey for the Leafs, as Kloke pointed out.
As for Michael Bunting and Erik Gustafsson, neither player has had any meaningful discussions with the Leafs on a potential contract, which likely lends to the idea that both will be moving on. There's still time for that to change, especially with a new GM coming in, but it seems more likely than not that both players will have new homes next season - especially with the substantial raises both will be pursuing.
In the case of Samsonov, a significant bump in pay is certainly well-deserved. The 26-year-old netminder posted career highs in wins (27), SV% (.919), GAA (2.33) and shutouts (4) this past season. He stepped in and took over the lion's share of the work with Matt Murray missing so much time due to injury and helped the Leafs finish 4th in the overall league standings in 2022-23. I think just about everyone is expecting to see Sammy back next season and the goaltender himself even stated at his season-ending media availability that he wants to get a deal done to return to Toronto as well.
For some expanded information and some details on some of the other UFAs and RFAs, check out Kloke's piece below:
| POLL | ||
MAI 26 | 258 ANSWERS Leafs reporter shares the latest on some of the team's restricted and unrestricted free agents Would you like to see the Leafs bring Michael Bunting back this summer? | ||
| Yes | 111 | 43 % |
| No | 147 | 57 % |
| List of polls | ||
