Michael Bunting admitted the business side pushed him out of Toronto and knowing how well he fit in with the team, it's going to sting fans a little harder.
Bunting came in and took the Maple Leafs by storm, scoring 46 goals and 112 points in 161 games while adding elite defence and physicality. Toronto elected not to bring him back for financial reasons, and the forward admitted that decision stung a bit knowing there wasn't much interest.
The Maple Leafs absolutely got a steal when they acquired Bunting in the summer of 2021. No one really knew what he could bring but as a player firmly set in his prime and ready to make an impact; he made the most of it.
Toronto was a great place for Bunting but financial constraints pushed him out
But he didn't really stick around that long as he was only part of the team for two seasons before Carolina scooped him up in free agency. It wasn't as if Bunting was bad or caused issues in the locker room, it was just a case of a salary cap crunch that really had no resolution at the time.
Bunting doesn't harbour any ill will towards the team though admitted that the decision caught him off guard and that he really didn't know what to expect before things took a turn:
It was pretty quiet on that front, there were just brief conversations of whether to come back or not and as you said earlier, the cap was coming into the equation and like I was coming up.
I never really had a big deal, so then the business side kind of came to factor in.
That's the part a lot of people don't understand. To be honest I havent thought of hitting July 1 at all, that hasn't been on my mind. Like I said, I'm Dallas property for now, we had good conversation at the end of the year and we'll see where things go and then we'll hear what's up there.
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Bunting only made $950,000 per season in Toronto, and with the team having a ton of cap space assigned to the Core Four and Morgan Rielly, it was tough to see how Bunting could have been afforded.
A reunion sounds like a great idea, but Bunting is focused on seeing things through with Dallas
Since Toronto he's bounced around the league quite a bit, with stops in Carolina, Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Dallas. But the 30-year old is still putting up decent numbers though his production took a huge hit since leaving the Maple Leafs.
He went from a guy averaging 0.70 PPG in Toronto to a 0.54 PPG player over the past three seasons, and it's clear he fit in nicely with the group. The Maple Leafs have seen the best of Bunting, who hasn't reached those heights since.
He made $4.5-million this season and is an unrestricted free agent come July 1 so whether or not Dallas can afford him with their upcoming deals is unknown.
But with him being a free agent this summer, there is the potential for Toronto to get back into the fold with Bunting and clearly he's more than capable of adding secondary offence in the top-six. He seems set to stick with Dallas and if he's focused on perennially competing then that's a great place.
He does still hold his best seasons in a Maple Leafs uniform and if he feels like playing with his old friends as well as Gavin McKenna then perhaps a reunion isn't out of the question.
Though it's just unfortunate that he had to leave in the first place, because it sounded like he found his home in Toronto.
Do you think Michael Bunting would be a good fit to return to the Maple Leafs?
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