The Toronto Maple Leafs will certainly have a busy offseason. They have over 10 unrestricted free agents in their system on top of a few restricted free agents like Ilya Samsonov.
With Samsonov almost guaranteed to receive a raise, the Leafs will be in a cap crunch with them projected to have under $10 million in spending money this offseason.
Now when talking about the Leafs' money situation, it is crucial to mention how Jake Muzzin is likely retired from hockey after sustaining a back injury that held him out for all but 4 games in 2022-23.
Because of this, he will likely be on the LTIR and will not have his cap hurt the Leafs resulting in an additional $5.625 million for the Leafs to spend.
However, even with the additional cap space, Muzzin offers the Leafs, they will have to lose some big names. In a recent podcast, NHL insider Chris Johnston shared what he thinks the Leafs will be doing with three key free agents.
This comes in addition to the report from Frank Seravalli which said that Bunting and Ryan O'Reilly would be leaving the Maple Leafs this offseason in favor of another team that will pay them more.
Leafs fans will be happy to depart with Justin Holl and Alex Kerfoot but are still on the fence about Bunting considering how he is a top-six forward. However, the Leafs will have Matthew Knies on the team all of next year and he likely fills out that role as a rookie.
As seen on Maple Leafs Daily -Report from another insider names 3 Leafs who are expected to hit free agency
POLL | ||
16 JUIN | 1053 ANSWERS Three Maple Leafs who will officially leave the team this summer If you were the Leafs GM, how many of these three players would you keep? | ||
0 | 310 | 29.4 % |
1 | 254 | 24.1 % |
2 | 246 | 23.4 % |
3 | 243 | 23.1 % |
List of polls |