One pending UFA unlikely to be back with the Leafs next season after revealing something very telling during yesterday's media day
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, the season didn't end the way they had intended, falling in 5 games to the lowly Florida Panthers in the 2nd round of the playoffs as the Cats look to continue their Cinderella story after also knocking off Boston in Round 1. Now, having choked away a golden opportunity, the Leafs are likely going to undergo a pretty substantial roster transformation this summer.
One of the casualties this summer is likely to be Leafs winger and Scarborough, ON native Michael Bunting, who confirmed during yesterday's season-ending presser that he and the team have not held any contract talks whatsoever to this point, which is surprising, given how Bunting plays the game.
Bunting is one of the league's better agitators, but had the unfortunate fate of garnering a bit of a bad reputation among the cohort of NHL referees, who did not give Bunting the benefit of the doubt on many calls this year. While Bunting began his tenure as a Leaf drawing a lot of penalties and bringing the worst out of the opposition, he ended up being a bit of a liability in terms of not getting calls and costing the Leafs dearly by winding up in the box himself, even when he probably didn't deserve to be there.
Then there's the matter of what Bunting will want in terms of salary expectations. The 27-year-old is coming off of back-to-back 23-goal seasons. He posted 63 points last year and another 49 points this year. He is also a combined +48 as a Leaf over the past 2 seasons. The Scarborough native earned just $950K in each of his last two seasons and is due a substantial raise.
There have been some reports that have come out, stating that Bunting will fetch north of $5M per season on the open market. Naturally, that will be too high an AAV for the Leafs to even consider it. In all likelihood, Bunting would be willing to take a discount to remain a Leaf, but if the team doesn't want to risk him continuing to be a liability, they may not even extend an offer. If they haven't even opened discussions at this point, it doesn't look favourable that Bunting will be brought back.
| POLL | ||
MAI 16 | 773 ANSWERS One pending UFA unlikely to be back with the Leafs next season after revealing something very telling during yesterday's media day Will Michael Bunting be brought back by the Leafs this summer? | ||
| No, and nor should he | 391 | 50.6 % |
| Yes, and he deserves a huge raise | 143 | 18.5 % |
| Don't care one way or the other | 239 | 30.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
