The Maple Leafs had seven players on their roster who were unrestricted free agents at the end of the season and of those, only Troy Bodie and Trevor Smith were re-signed by the club.
The list of departures grew by one on Tuesday, as defenseman Paul Ranger signed a two-year contract with Genève-Servette HC of the Swiss League.
The former Tampa Bay defenseman scored six goals and eight assists in 53 games for Toronto during the 2013-14 season.
The Leafs had high hopes for the 29-year-old blueliner going after playing well with the AHL Toronto Marlies in 2012-13 after a three-year absence from professional hockey.
The Whitby, ON native struggled to get back up to speed in the first half of the season and was a healthy scratch for a long stretch before finding his niche when the Leafs went to an 11 forward, seven-defensemen lineup.
He now joins Genève-Servette, the club team in Switzerland’s top tier hockey league, who has former Leaf Matthew Lombardi on their roster.
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MLSE CEO Tim Leiweke is making a play for a trio of the NHL signature events to celebrate the Maple Leafs Centennial celebration in 2017.
According to a report from Sportsnet’s Luke Fox , the club is pitching the league to get the All-Star Game, the 2017 NHL Draft and the Winter Classic.
“It’s not a splash. I just think Toronto—it’s our 100th anniversary, and this is the greatest hockey city on Earth. I think we owe it to our fans. And we’re telling the league that they owe it to our fans,… Leiweke said. “They don’t disagree, but we’ve got to go through a process to win it. I think we’ll win it. I think we’ll get there. But we got to go bid on it.…
Leiweke also indicates that Toronto is trying to secure the proposed 2016 World Cup, which will return to the hockey scene after a 12 year absence.
The chances of Toronto hosting a Winter Classic are contingent on the expansion of BMO Field, which received positive feedback from Toronto’s city council, who voted to allocate $10 million towards an expansion that would almost double the seating capacity of the soccer-only facility on Lakeshore Boulevard in downtown Toronto.
“Once we get BMO under construction and they see we can do 40,000 seats, then we’ll have a serious conversation,… Leiweke said. “Until we prove to the league we can do that, they’re saying, ‘Come back and see us when you’re under construction.’ I get that, and I don’t blame them.…
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