The Toronto Maple Leafs may be adding another depth forward capable of playing in the NHL, but very possibly as another veteran to bolster the AHL Toronto Marlies with a number of their experienced players departing via free agency.
Penguins beat reporter Taylor Haase reported on Saturday that the Leafs have signed 28-year-old winger Garrett Wilson. The Barrie, ON native has played 362 games for four different AHL teams since being drafted by Florida in 2009.
Wilson scored eight points (2 goals, 6 assists) in 50 games for Pittsburgh as a fourth liner last season, and could join the mix of players (including free agents Kenny Agostino, Nick Shore and rookies Mason Marchment and Pierre Engval)l battling for depth positions on the Leafs fourth line.
The Leafs continue to want the Marlies to be a successful and strong squad and have added the likes of Agostino, Shore, Darren Archibald, Aaron Luchuk, Kevin Gravel and Ben Harpur to replace departing veterans Chris Mueller, Colin Greening, Vincent LoVerde, Josh Jooris, Michael Carcone and Calle Rosen.
In his Sunday Slapshots column, the NY Post’s Larry Brooks provides a pretty accurate roadmap of why offer sheets in the NHL do not work and are not ever likely to become commonplace.
Former NY Rangers GM Neil Smith extended an offer sheet to Colorado’s Joe Sakic in 1997, which was quickly matched by Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix. Rangers upper management wanted Smith to go the offer sheet route with Paul Kariya.
“Paul was a restricted free agent with Anaheim. I told Bob (Bowman) that was no way we could get Kariya on an offer sheet but he said that no matter what, we’d be ‘giving’ it to [Michael] Eisner of Disney, who owned Anaheim. It was like a corporate game to Bowman.
“I wouldn’t do it. I said, ‘I have to live in this league and I won’t be able to if we do this. I’m a hockey guy, not a corporate raider.’ ”
Brooks indicated that offer sheets intended to paint teams in a financial corner (Sergei Fedorov by Carolina in 1998, Shea Weber by Philadelphia in 2012 and Sebastian Aho by Montreal earlier this month have failed, since Detroit, Nashville and Carolina match the offers and that would likely be the case with Toronto and RFA Mitch Marner, but also warned that the Leafs could be in a spot if Marner’s camp and another team wait until just before the regular season.
GM Kyle Dubas would not have the advantage of being able to go 10% over the cap as he does during the summer and would have limited time to create cap space by moving other players, unless he has planned for that eventuality already.
*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.*******
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»