Toronto native Andrew Mangiapane could be available and if he is, he'd be the perfect addition to the top 6

The Flames have just 12/23 players signed for next season, meaning that they'll require 11 more to complete their roster. The alternative is to run things pretty thin and go with a 21-man roster, meaning that they'd only need to sign 9 players. The problem is that two players who are in need of new deals are Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, both of whom are coming off of 100-plus point seasons.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that both Tkachuk and Gaudreau sign deals that begin with a "9" this summer, which would eat up $18M of their $26.9M in cap space and they'd still need to sign at least 7 more players. Unfortunately, unless the Flames trade Tkachuk or allow Gaudreau to go to free agency on July 13th, there doesn't appear to be very much room for Andrew Mangiapane on the roster, after the 26-year-old just put a 35-goal season on his resume. Mangiapane also added 20 assists to finish the 2021-22 campaign with 55 points in 82 games.

Mangiapane carried a very team-friendly $2.425M in each of his last last two seasons and is due a sizable raise this summer. I'd imagine that he'll be looking for every penny of what Blake Coleman got on his most recent deal (6 years at $4.9M per season), if not more, as he outproduced the 30-year-old in each of the last 3 seasons. The Flames simply can't come close to that number.

Given his status as a very hard-working top-6 left winger, who showed this season that he could play with skilled players, I'd love to see the Leafs take a swing here, but unless they can move some money out, it just doesn't seem feasible, as the Leafs have just under $8M in cap space and will need to sign 6 players to complete their roster this summer - including possibly two goaltenders.

A few scenarios that could allow the Leafs some financial flexibility to potentially pursue the Toronto-born Mangiapane would be to move the final season of Alex Kerfoot's deal to clear out an additional $3.5M in cap space. The Leafs also have Justin Holl that they are likely to move to clear another $2M.

Assuming that the Leafs replace Petr Mrazek with a less expensive option at backup, there's another $3.8M coming off the books, minus whatever Mrazek's replacement makes. There are certainly plenty of creative options available to GM Kyle Dubas if he wants to take a run at Mangiapane this summer, should be be available via trade or as an unqualified UFA. I can't imagine that the Flames would leave Mangiapane unqualified, but the threat of an arbitration award that they could not walk away from could force GM Brad Treliving's hand.