One reason for the Leafs' cap issues that doesn't get nearly enough attention
When the Toronto Maple Leafs signed David Kampf back in 2021-2022, his name never jumped off the page. The undrafted centre was with the Chicago Blackhawks for four seasons and never made the highlight reels or even an honorable mention on TSN.
After watching his first season with the Leafs, I felt he would be a valuable member of the team as he gave a glimpse of a unique skill set, which included penalty killing and a strong sense of defensive play, something the Leafs lacked at the time.
After putting together two solid campaigns of 82 games each and only finishing up one more point than the previous year with 26 points, some expected Kampf to receive a small increase in pay over his previous deal by Dubas. However, after the events of Kyle Dubas's departure and the hiring of Brad Treliving, the new GM worked quickly and signed Kampf to a new four-year contract extension worth $2.4 million per season. This number floored myself and many other fans as Kampf doesn't exactly bring $2.4M worth of value to the lineup on a nightly basis.
What's worse is that the 28-year-old began the 2023 season in a long goal scoring drought. This stretched from the end of the 2022 season, both rounds of the playoffs and was broken on November 11th against the Vancouver Canucks. He's currently on a five-game pointless drought.
During he previous two seasons, he was a +12 and a +6. This season, however, his defensive play also took a hit after the Maple Leafs changed their assistant coach, adding Mike van Ryn as the new man in charge of the defensive systems in Toronto. Kampf stands as a -6 this season.
With that all being said, I feel the Maple Leafs overpaid for a 4th liner and could have signed him for around the same $1.5 million per season. His term is also a little too long and I think a two-year extension would have been more than enough for a replacement level player.
Time will tell if his numbers improve and Sheldon Keefe feels more comfortable in handing him more minutes and more responsibilities, but I have a feeling this deal will not age well and may hurt the Leafs in the long run, especially when it comes to their cap situation, when they could have saved nearly $1M by simply finding the next David Kampf instead of overpaying the devil we know.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 27 | 682 ANSWERS One reason for the Leafs' cap issues that doesn't get nearly enough attention Do you think the Leafs overpaid for David Kampf? | ||
| Yes, it's at least $750K too high | 401 | 58.8 % |
| No, it's a good deal for a good player | 281 | 41.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
