Be sure to like HockeyBuzz on facebook! For the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter It took three days to pull it off, but the Vegas Golden Knights snagged the top prize in free agency on Monday with the signing of defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to a seven-year, $61.6 million contract ($8.8 million AAV). The 30-year-old becomes the fifth-highest paid blueliner in the NHL behind Erik Karlsson, Drew Doughty, Roman Josi and PK Subban and gives the Golden Knights the best top pairing in the league if head coach Peter deBoer chooses to put Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore together. The Toronto Maple Leafs checked in with Pietrangelo’s representatives on Friday when free agency begun, but GM Kyle Dubas indicated that they quickly shifted their attention to signing TJ Brodie after finding out what the defenseman was looking for on the open market. “(We were) not very close. (Signing Brodie) has been our major focus. This is where we were locked in on and we were set on going down this path.… Dubas said. “The market has a lot of players on it, but there aren’t a lot of defensemen capable of playing in (the) top four that have the exact skill set that we need.… Former NHLer Carlo Colaiacovo (a friend and former teammate of Pietrangelo in St. Louis who broke the story of the signing) indicated on TSN 1050 Tuesday morning that the former Blues team captain had interest in signing in Toronto and there was a very good chance that would have happened if the NHL salary cap increased. The cap staying flat at $81.5 million for the foreseeable future made clubs interested in Pietrangelo make a choice to clear space by moving out players to accommodate his salary. Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon made the calculation that his club would be improved with the addition of Pietrangelo on his blueline and trading defenseman Nate Schmidt to Vancouver for a 2022 third-round pick to clear his $5.95 million salary. Toronto would have needed to move out Andreas Johnsson’s $3.4 million cap hit and William Nylander’s $6.9 million salary to open up enough room for a slightly higher cap hit than $8.8 million (since Vegas has the benefit of being in no state tax Nevada). Dubas is gambling that Toronto’s fortunes will be better served by keeping Nylander and adding Brodie on a four-year, $20 million contract instead of adding Pietrangelo, but may have only one or two years to prove he is correct. The Leafs have fortified their roster with more size, experience, energy, and toughness with the additions of Wayne Simmonds, Jimmy Vesey, Zach Bogosian, and Joey Anderson, and may add more players depending on what moves are made between now and the start of training camp, but in the end, it will come down to whether Nylander can raise his game to a higher level and Brodie can solidify the Leafs top pairing with Morgan Rielly. *******
The NHL released the schedule for arbitration hearings on Tuesday and Leafs forward Ilya Mikheyev is slated for Wednesday, October 21. The 26-year-old winger scored 23 points (8 goals, 15 assists) in 39 games before suffering a wrist laceration in late December, but he returned in August and played all five games in the playoff series against Columbus. Normally players settle before getting to the actual hearing and based on the good relationship the Leafs have with agent Daniel Milstein, the two sides will likely agree on a deal beforehand. *******
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— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) October 11, 2020