Maple Leafs Must Pay Signing Bonuses to Three Players This Offseason, Impacting Trade Strategy
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
The Toronto Maple Leafs could be setting the stage for a key offseason shakeup. With large signing bonuses for Max Domi ($2.5M), David Kampf ($1.325M), and Calle Jarnkrok ($1.325M); the team might have an easier time sending them elsewhere this summer.
As Toronto navigates the changes to their roster for 2025-26, they have a few ways they can do so. Signing some new players, or trading away some old one might just give Brad Treliving enough to change the DNA of the team.
Well, considering that some players are due a signing bonus and will be fairly respectable contracts; it makes trading them a lot easier.
Domi, Kampf, and Jarnkrok are all potential trade candidates
If Toronto really wanted to change things up next season, they could do themselves a big service by trading one or several fairly cheap contracts, it's just gonna cost them a bit up front.
By paying off their bonuses now, it depreciates their deal to a much more respectable number.
Domi, 30, hasn't been the offensive weapon the Maple Leafs have needed, and is often criticized for his defensive shortcomings. He only posted 33 points in 74 games, the second-lowest total for his career.
There's hope for him on the top line now that Mitch Marner is headed out, and it might be a way to unlock his potential once again. But he's been here for two years, and doesn't look like a player who belongs in a Craig Berube system.
He could very easily play for a contender on their bottom-six, or come into a younger system and try to help mentor; but he costs too much for what Toronto needs.
Kampf, 30, is someone who felt like he could work with Berube, but ended up being a healthy scratch at the end of the year, and only skated in one playoff game.
Quickly falling out of favor, the defensively savvy center is certainly serviceable, but not at that price, plus Toronto has players like Jacob Quillan and even NCAA standout Luke Haymes could fight for that spot.
He won't blow you away offensively, though did have 13 points this season (5G, 8A) and has hit 25+ points twice before. For a team needing a cheap defensive center to help on their PK, Kampf works perfectly.
Jarnkrok, 33, is the oldest of the bunch and probably the one who is most likely gone.
Beset by injuries, including recovering from a sports hernia surgery, Jarnkrok was not the player expected this year. Skating in only 19 games, he had seven points and was a non-factor in the playoffs.
He'll be extremely cheap for a bottom-six center, but he's also getting older and much like Kampf has a lot of other players who can come in (especially since he's a winger and Toronto has guys like Easton Cowan).
Will Toronto trade any of their potential buyout candidates?
If they had it their way, they would be able to recoup some decent assets for them, but while that would be great, it might not be feasible.
Of the three players who could get traded, it feels like Jarnkrok would be the one on the outside looking in. He's much older than the other two, is a step or two behind his opponents, and he's expendable.
Where Domi can try and rekindle some magic with Auston Matthews, and Kampf could be used in a pinch for Berube, or act as a jack of all trades defensively and slot in when Toronto is having a tough time.
But for Calle Jarnkrok, it might be the end of the road.
A trade to a potential contender like Calgary, St. Louis or the Seattle Kraken (two teams he played for previously) and if Treliving can acquire a draft asset that he can push off as well; it's a win-win.
So nothing is a guarantee, and we very well might see the trio back in the fold once again.
But if the team truly wants to change its DNA, then it'll need to be out with the old and in with the new.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 2 | 511 ANSWERS Maple Leafs Must Pay Signing Bonuses to Three Players This Offseason, Impacting Trade Strategy Who should the Maple Leafs buyout or end up trading? | ||
| Max Domi | 96 | 18.8 % |
| Calle Jarnkrok | 185 | 36.2 % |
| David Kampf | 165 | 32.3 % |
| None of the Above | 65 | 12.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
TRENDING NOW
