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Spezza has “unfinished business”, Lamoriello’s mistakes still hurting Leafs

June 17, 2021, 6:20 PM ET [283 Comments]
Mike Augello
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There was little doubt that the Toronto Maple Leafs and veteran Jason Spezza had mutual interest in continuing their association after two successful seasons. On Wednesday, the 38-year-old agreed to a one-year, $750,000 contract with the Leafs, citing his desire to help the club break through after countless years of playoff disappointment,

"I talked with Kyle(Dubas) and with Sheldon(Keefe), and they expressed they wanted me back." Spezza said on Wednesday. "(I've) thought about (the Montreal series) a lot since we lost, just kind of what went wrong and what we can do different moving forward and there's no concrete answers to any of it, but the only way to get there is just to continue to come back and work hard and work harder I guess and do more to put ourselves in even better position to succeed next time we get to the playoffs.

(It's) definitely a frustrating time, I still feel frustrated by the result. I don't think that a couple of weeks in between is really lessen the pain of the loss."



Spezza for the third straight year has signed for league-minimum or close to it, something that he does not have an issue with because of the club’s cap constraints and the league’s cap staying flat for the foreseeable future.

"I know where the team is at with the cap and everything and I'll be honest, all I care about is playing on a good team and just trying to win. If I could take less, I would, Spezza said, "I love playing the game, I love competing. The case of a Cup is at the forefront of my mind daily, and anything I can do to kind of help the team acquire better players, that's kind of why I just take league minimum and want to move forward."

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On Wednesday, the NHL announced the candidates for the Jim Gregory NHL GM of the Year, with former Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello being nominated for the second straight year after winning last season. There is no doubt that there were a lot of positives to Lamoriello’s three-year tenure in Toronto, but it has to be pointed out that his mistakes have been something that current GM Kyle Dubas has had to deal with.

Trading draft picks for veteran rentals Brian Boyle and Tomas Plekanec when the Leafs were not serious contenders was a costly way of keeping head coach Mike Babcock from not complaining to the media as he did countless times, but the long term contracts for Patrick Marleau and Nikita Zaitsev cost Toronto a first round pick (to get Carolina to buyout the third year of Marleau’s contract) and winger Connor Brown (to take on the five remaining years on Zaitsev’s deal).

Perhaps the biggest miscalculation was not being proactive in handling William Nylander’s second contract. Lamoriello burned the first year of Nylander’s ELC in 2016 and after the young winger posted 61 points in his first full season, the Leafs did not seriously attempt to get him signed to a bridge deal or long-term extension.

Nylander posted another 61-point season in 2018 and after Lamoriello’s departure, the Leafs and the winger went through a lengthy standoff before Toronto agreed to a six-year deal at nearly $7 million per season.

Some blame for the Nylander deal goes to Dubas for capitulating at the last minute, which eventually led to the big money deals for Matthews and Marner, but had Lamoriello maintained his usual tough reputation in contract negotiations and got Nylander signed, it may have lead to more cap friendly deals for the rest of the core group going forward.

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