A lot happened with the Leafs last week, and if you don't know all of it, check our home page for all the articles about the free agent signings, and trades by other teams, and Paul Holmg... err I mean Danny Briere having a few too many drinks on Friday night and in a daze at midnight saying "fuck it, I'm going for it," and making an Offer Sheet for Leo Carlsson who will now be the highest paid player in the NHL at an average of $18M per year. For reference, Sidney Crosby who is winding down his Penguins contract makes less than half that.
The Leafs had development camp run by the always insightful Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser and I won't write much more about that here because Brian has a full recap of it coming out this morning at 8:00 a.m., including a lot of great individual player insights, though let's be clear we don't weight a dev camp scrimmage very high on the "what can this guy do" scale, but comparisons to prior seasons do matter, and it's not easy to get to watch players in European leagues here so we got to see Tinus Luc Koblar in an accessible, though blurry, format and Brian has some things to say about him, Gavin McKenna, and many others.
So, here we are. What's left? Well I guess the big questions are both Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly. All signs point to Rielly being traded, and insiders say he's fine with it, but when and where? Those insiders also talk about so much interest in Matthew Knies that he will likely be traded too, but it sounds like that's going to be something that comes together after the free-agency dust clears, if it even happens at all. As Chayka says in his Bay Street voice, the market is illiquid, meaning you have to pay more for less to get out, and right now at peak summer, some teams have probably suspended redemptions, and you can't have the Bank of Canada inject liquidity into the hockey player market.
There's fish in the Leafs' river waiting to be reeled in, but no one has cast a line yet.
Or we could call Toronto the capital of hockey. I like that.
Here are the players who elected for salary arbitration, including both Robertsons. They are now no longer eligible for an Offer Sheet.
Bourgault, Xavier (Ottawa Senators)
Dach, Kirby (Montreal Canadiens)
Drysdale, Jamie (Philadelphia Flyers)
Greaves, Jet (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Jefferies, Alex (New York Islanders)
Krebs, Peyton (Buffalo Sabres)
McMichael, Connor (St. Louis Blues)
Perfetti, Cole (Winnipeg Jets)
Robertson, Jason (Dallas Stars)
Robertson, Nick (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Schmid, Akira (Florida Panthers)
Schneider, Braden (New York Rangers)
Seeley, Ronan (Carolina Hurricanes)
Sillinger, Cole (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Zegras, Trevor (Philadelphia Flyers)
