Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Re-Sign Three Players During This Offseason
The Toronto Maple Leafs should re-sign a few pending free agents even though they still need to make a lot of adjustments.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were an excellent free agent club during Kyle Dubas’s tenure as team president. They were excellent at finding deals and hardly ever overpaid for players. They recognized when to let “x player” walk while still being able to extract the maximum value from their players.
You can argue that the team made the right move in allowing Zach Hyman depart, even though Michael Bunting was signed for a sixth of the original contract. Even if Hyman has a deal of $5.5 million and can score 50 goals, I would rather choose a player who can score 20 goals or more and score 60 points for minimal pay than Hyman.
The organization made a huge mistake when current general manager Brad Treliving took over, spending $15 million on players like Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, David Kampf, and John Klingberg when that money could have been used far more wisely. Hopefully, this offseason won’t see the same situation, but given his past performance, it most likely will.
As we look at the Leafs’ pending free agents, they should let a number of players go, as this list illustrates, but these three players are the ones the team should re-sign this summer.
Three Players the Leafs Should Sign Again in the Offseason: 1. Nick Robertson
Even though his output isn’t as high as that of his brother Jason, Nick is still a great player, and the Leafs would be foolish not to re-sign the 22-year-old to a long-term deal while he’s still an RFA.
Despite having 14 goals and 27 points at the end of the 2023–24 season, Robertson performed far better than his numbers would indicate. He was only one minute behind Auston Matthews in terms of minutes played, yet he scored at a pace comparable to
Timothy Liljegren, No. 2
In my opinion, Liljegren has been subjected to unjust criticism throughout the entirety of his time with the Leafs, much like Robertson. Nevertheless, his numbers are far better than you may expect when you watch the tape and analyze them.
Liljegren, who is still a very valuable and dependable right-shot defenseman, was perhaps the second-best defenseman for the Leafs this season.
Being the second-best defenseman on the Leafs has its drawbacks because he isn’t a top-two player on a winning team and is best served in a second or third pairing.
Having said that, the Leafs would be foolish to cut Liljegren now that he’s still an RFA and would be
Ilya Lyubushkin, No 3.
The Leafs and Lyubushkin are a fantastic match, and despite his difficult to achieve presence, Lyubushkin constantly appears to improve Morgan Rielly.
Rielly has had trouble finding a trustworthy defensive partner over the last few years, but Lyubushkin has performed admirably in his two roles in Toronto.
In the playoffs, Lyubushkin performs flawlessly as the defensemen you want him to. He finished with a plus-four rating in seven games against Boston. He hits, blocks shots, and most importantly, stays off the ice for goals by the opposition. Even though plus/minus is a stupid statistic, it can be useful to display in the playoffs with a tiny sample size.
