A couple of observations from the Maple Leafs locker
clean out on Thursday:
*The sting of the game7 loss to Boston is still
fresh.
*The Leafs won’t overspend to keep unrestricted free
agent Tyler Bozak
*GM Dave Nonis expects to make his team better
through trades, and not via free agency.
Nonis may have said it best on Thursday talking
about the heartbreaking playoff exit to Boston when he called it a “once in a
lifetime.”
“We have to find a way of flushing that memory out
of our system because if we dwell on it for the next three months we’re not
going to be prepared for October,” said Nonis.
“The only thing I said to them is that it’ll take
some time,” said coach Randy Carlyle. “Time will heal this, but we can never forget.”
“I mean it stings,” winger James van Riemsdyk told
me. “So you look for stuff going into the summer to try to maybe keep in the
back of your mind and maybe push you through some of those workouts.”
Now Nonis and his staff begin the process of making
the team better next season.
Carlyle may have said it best when he said next year
the Leafs won’t surprise anyone and it will be “more difficult” for the team to
make the playoffs.
“We took significant steps, but there’s room for
improvement,” said Nonis.
Among the chief issues for Nonis will be dealing
with his 6 unrestricted free agents: Tyler Bozak, Clark MacArthur, Colton Orr,
Ryan Hamilton, Ryan O’Byrne and Mike Kostka.
The most intriguing will be how he handles Bozak. He
played on the Leafs top line this year and earned just $1.5 M, so he is in line
for a big raise. The Leafs likely will offer him a deal in the $4 to $4.5 M
range. If Bozak wants to make more, he will have to explore free agency.
“If there’s a contract that makes sense for us and
makes sense for Tyler, then we’ll sign him,” Nonis said. “It’s not a situation
where we have to sign Tyler Bozak because there are number that make sense for
the team, and there’s numbers that make sense for Bozie.”
Keep in mind the salary cap drops to $64.3 M next
season, which will make it a challenge not only for the Leafs but all NHL
clubs.
James Reimer looks to be the #1 goalie for the Leafs
and Nonis said he did a “very good job for us.”
“At this point I’d say he’ll be back as # 1,” added
the General Manager.
Again with the salary cap dropping next year, and
Reimer is a $1.8 M cap hit next year the final year of his contract. So the
Leafs likely will spend money in other areas and go with the 25 year-old
Reimer.
Nazem Kadri, Joe Colborne and Cody Franson are among
7 restricted free agents and will be in line for pay hikes.
Expect Nonis to use his compliance buyout on Mike
Komisarek this summer which should open some cap space for the Leafs.
Nonis must also decide if he should offer Phil
Kessel and Dion Phaneuf contract extensions. Both players have just one year
left in their deals and the Leafs.
The GM had plenty of praise for Kessel saying the
way he played against Boston was “the best stretch of hockey Phil Kessel has
ever played.”
As far as Phaneuf is concerned, Nonis was asked if he would
consider trading his captain to make his team better.
“I’ve always felt the word untouchable is really
silly in this sport,” said Nonis. “There are players you would be unlikely to
move and players we see as being long-term solutions to success here. But
untouchable doesn’t help you if you’re looking to get better. You look at some
of the teams that have gotten better and shake their head, but they’ve gotten
better doing it.”
The Leafs have 12 players under contract next season
at a cap hit of $45.1 M (again the cap is $64.3 M)
Mikhael Grabovski: $5.5 M
Nikolai Kulemin: $2.8 M
Phil Kessel: $5.4 M
Joffrey Lupul: $ 5.25 M
James van Riemsdyk: $4.25 M
Jay McClement: $1.5 M
Matt Frattin: $925,000
Dion Phaneuf: $6 M
John Michael-Liles: $3.75 M
Jake Gardiner: $ 1.2 M
James Reimer: $ 1.8 M
Ben Scrivens: $612,500
This may be the off season, but that’s not the case
for the Leafs general manager or his management team.
