Will Bunting Be Extended??? Leafs vs. Habs In Season Opener (maple leafs)

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Will Bunting Be Extended??? Leafs vs. Habs In Season Opener

By Mike Augello

Oct 12, 2022 • 4:15 pm

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The Toronto Maple Leafs open the 2022-23 regular season against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre, with a great deal of expectation and an equal amount of skepticism.

The Leafs will have a full lineup on Wednesday after some concern that team captain John Tavares would be available after suffering a strained quad in training camp. Tavares will be on a line with William Nylander and Denis Malgin, with Michael Bunting-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner, Pierre Engvall-Alex Kerfoot-Calle Jarnkrok, and Zach Aston-Reese-David Kampf-Nicolas Aube-Kubel making up the other three lines in front of starter Matt Murray.

Bunting, who is entering the final year of a two-year, $1.9 million deal after leading all NHL rookies in scoring (63 points - 23 goals, 40 assists in 79 games) and finishing third in Calder Trophy voting, became a key contributor for the Leafs last season after playing on the left side with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, , the Leafs may be willing to go the way of an eight-year max deal for the 27-year-old winger for the purpose of spreading out the AAV to lower the cap hit.

LeBrun indicated that there haven't been any contract talks between the club and the Scarborough, ON native, but he believes that a long-term deal will be amenable to both sides if they can find common ground on a number and Bunting commented in Montreal when asked about the possibility that he is fine with his agent negotiating a new deal during the season.

Using the max option is something that GM Kyle Dubas tried to use before with winger Zach Hyman, but Hyman was being offered a seven-year, $38.5 million deal from Edmonton ($5.5 million AAV) and the extra year was not enough to lower the AAV to a manageable amount.

The trend this summer has been going towards teams signing players to long-term deals based on the indicators that the salary cap will go up significantly in two years, but for more than just star players. Tampa Bay locked up forward Nick Paul to a seven-year, $22.05 million deal ($3.15 million AAV). Bunting playing in more of a scoring role would likely elevate his price tag, but if Dubas can get him in the range of $3.5 to $4M on a front-loaded deal (around the same amount as Alex Kerfoot’s expiring contract), that would be a move that makes a lot of sense for both Bunting and Toronto.

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