Mere hours after Alec Martinez buried the rebound past Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to give the Los Angeles Kings their second Stanley Cup in three seasons, NHL teams are fully engaged in off-season mode, making decisions on potential compliance buyouts, extending qualifying offers to restricted free agents, trying to get reach terms with unrestricted free agents before they are free to hit the open market on July 1.
The buyout period begins 48 hours after the end of the Stanley Cup Final and while there are the likes of the oft-injured Ville Leino or Ryan Malone might have trouble finding an NHL job next season, players like Brad Richards, RJ Umberger and Mike Richards may draw significant interest if their clubs decide to use the “get out of jail free… card provided to them by the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The Maple Leafs used both of their compliance buyouts last summer on Mike Komisarek and Mikhail Grabovski, but could go down the road of a regular buyout on defenseman Tim Gleason, who has two years remaining at a $4 Million cap hit.
Toronto has over $22.4 Million in available cap space according to Cap Geek, including $2.5 Million freed up by the expiration of the Darcy Tucker and Colby Armstrong buyouts and salary retention of Ben Scrivens and Matt Frattin, but have the lowest amount of roster players(12) under contract in the NHL.
Of the 22 free agents, 11 are restricted, including Cody Franson, Jake Gardiner, James Reimer, Peter Holland, Jerry D’Amigo, Carter Ashton, minor leaguers Kenny Ryan, Spencer Abbott, Jamie Devane and Brandon Kozun. They must receive a qualifying offer with a 10% salary increase before July 1 for Toronto to retain their rights for compensation if these players receive offer sheets from other NHL clubs.
Forwards Dave Bolland, Jay McClement, Nikolai Kulemin, Mason Raymond, Troy Bodie, Brad Staubitz, Trevor Smith and Jerred Smithson, defenseman Paul Ranger and TJ Brennan and goalie Drew MacIntyre are unrestricted after July 1.
Leafs GM Dave Nonis indicated earlier this week that he is open to bringing Bolland, McClement, Kulemin, Raymond, as well as former Leaf Leo Komarov back into the fold, but that their price point will determine that.
Komarov left Toronto to return to Dynamo Moscow of the KHL last season to play a more prominent role in able to make the Finnish Olympic squad, but also because Dynamo offered significantly more than the Leafs on a new deal. The 27-year-old pest is looking for in the neighborhood of $2 Million per season, which reportedly is too rich for the Leafs. *******
Here is a great video montage put together by Tim Thompson of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, set to Queen’s epic “Show Must Go On….
It features some of the most memorable moments of the past two months of playoff hockey, as well as some of the broadcasting greats who have been a part of our hockey viewing experience throughout the decades of CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada, including the great Foster Hewitt, Danny Gallivan, Dick Irvin, Bob Cole, Dave Hodge, Ron Maclean and Don Cherry.
Tim’s work is one of the many things that fans have looked forward to from the CBC broadcasts in recent years, along with the work of people like Elliotte Friedman, Andi Petrillo, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Kelly Hrudey and many others. Hopefully they will continue to be part of Rogers/Sportsnet’s coverage beginning next season.
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