In a dream scenario, the Leafs would land both Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei when they hit the open market on July 1st. Adding both would instantly give the Leafs a very different look on the blueline and create a cascading effect on the roster, bolstering the entire group. The Leafs have been linked to Pesce in recent weeks consistently, but it appears as though another Eastern Conference team is now the front-runner.
According to 'Empty Netters' podcast host Dan Powers, Pesce is set to join Sheldon Keefe's new team, the New Jersey Devils. This is the same source who broke the Sheldon Keefe to New Jersey news and the Craig Berube and Marc Savard to Toronto news in advance.
While the NHL insists there is no tampering with pending free agents, this certainly sounds and looks like it, does it not? It's very similar to what happened with Jack Campbell in the week leading up to him signing with the Edmonton Oilers. The same could he said for the Zach Hyman situation.
Evolving Hockey projects Pesce's next deal to be in the neighborhood of 5 years and $5.5M per season, which, for a top-four defenseman, is not a bad deal at all. The 29-year-old, New York native has skated in 627 career games with the Hurricanes, amassing 39 goals and 198 points across nine seasons.
