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The Toronto Maple Leafs are endeavoring to get whatever internal business they can done before the Draft on Tuesday and the beginning of free agency later this week. On Friday, the Leafs re-signed winger Denis Malgin to a one-year league-minimum contract and on Monday they announced the re-signing of veteran center Jason Spezza to a one-year contract for $700,000.
The 37-year-old former All-Star signed with the Leafs in July 2019 to help provide some experience and leadership following the departure of Patrick Marleau. After some well-chronicled misuse by former head coach Mike Babcock before his firing last November, Spezza played well in a depth role at center and on the wing, scoring 25 points (9 goals, 16 assists) in 58 games averaging just under 11 minutes of ice time per night.
In the playoffs, the Leafs fourth line unit with Spezza, Pierre Engvall and Kyle Clifford played well and saw an increasing role after Game 1 and the veteran forward showed a bit of leadership and willingness to go outside his comfort zone to spark the club when he dropped the gloves with Blue Jackets defenseman Dean Kukan in Game 4.
“I know that I am not the player I once was, but do feel like I can help quite a bit. The fire still burns and I really hope to be back here next year.… Spezza said. “I don’t know where things stand and when you lose, there are consequences. But I would really love a chance to come back with this group and continue to play. We’ll have conversations in the coming weeks to establish where (the Leafs) are in their thought process.…
The signing gives Toronto 20 players under contract for the 2020-21 season (11 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies) and reduces their available cap space to $4.706 million(according to Cap Friendly), with restricted free agents Ilya Mikheyev, Frederik Gauthier, Evan Rodrigues and Travis Dermott. The deadline for RFA qualifying offers is 5pm Wednesday. It is expected that the Leafs will extend offers to Mikheyev Dermott, and possibly Gauthier, but Rodrigues will likely have to agree to a significantly lower cap hit than his $2 million salary from last season before Wednesday to stay with Toronto for next season.
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