Report: Dubas had a deal for a roster player on the table before the deadline and chose to keep him instead
On February 17th, the Leafs acquired Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari from St. Louis for Adam Gaudette, Mikhail Abramov, 2023 first and third round picks, 2024 second round pick and a 2025 fourth round pick. The fourth round pick was sent to Minnesota so that Minnesota would take on 50% of O'Reilly's salary to help keep the Leafs compliant with the salary cap.
According to Leafs reporter Joshua Kloke, and was first touched on by Elliotte Friedman in March, the Leafs had the opportunity to include Alexander Kerfoot in the deal to shed his $3.5M salary. Dubas, however, chose to keep Kerfoot and spend the 4th round pick instead. Kerfoot has been a polarizing figure since arriving in Toronto and was a favourite of Sheldon Keefe and Dubas due to his versatility. The reason to keep him made sense, but at the same time, he was not producing anywhere near where he had been just one season prior when he had 51 points. He finished the season with just 10 goals and 32 points and had just 2 points in 11 playoff games.
The Leafs had plenty of forward depth that moving Kerfoot would not have hurt them all that much, even with the injury to Matthew Knies against Florida. They had a number of Marlies, specifically Pontus Holmberg and Bobby McMann, available to them and would have likely performed much better than Kerfoot. Holmberg very arguably could have stepped into Kerfoot's penalty killing role and McMann would've provided more size against Florida.
It's almost a guarantee that Kerfoot won't be back with the Leafs next season, given his projected asking price, which is believed to be between $3.5M and $4M per season. I just don't see the Leafs extending him unless he was willing to take a substantial pay cut and a role lower down the lineup, as a 3rd or 4th line staple.
| POLL | ||
MAI 26 | 1021 ANSWERS Report: Dubas had a deal for a roster player on the table before the deadline and chose to keep him instead Should the Leafs have moved Kerfoot at the deadline when they had a deal on the table? | ||
| Yes, he should have been gone a long time ago | 617 | 60.4 % |
| No, he helped us beat Tampa | 168 | 16.5 % |
| It's too late now either way. Don't care. | 236 | 23.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
