The Toronto Maple Leafs will have to wait until July to truly know how big of a task they have this summer to put together a roster, but according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, GM Brad Treliving is likely to be proactive to get some contract signings done before the start of free agency.
On Monday’s 32 Thoughts podcast, Friedman indicated that the Leafs moving on from Brendan Shanahan was related to MLSE downsizing and eliminating redundancy in their management structure (as they’ve done with Toronto FC) and less about the organization’s failure to have any postseason success or the roster mistakes made under the Shanaplan the last eight or nine years.
Friedman said that he expects Treliving to start to look at some of their summer business. There appears to be mutual interest in a contract extension for former team captain John Tavares. Tavares said at locker cleanout last week that he had spoken to both Treliving and head coach Craig Berube and expressed his strong desire to stay with the Leafs. He believes that if both sides are being reasonable, where Toronto is not expecting the 34-year-old to take a veteran minimum deal or agent Pat Brisson is expecting to break the bank for his client, a deal could happen pretty quickly.
With the likely departure of Mitch Marner, re-signing Tavares is extremely important, especially since the 2025 free agent market is not deep. The Leafs are weak up the middle, and may need to add a center even if they re-sign the 34-year-old, because Max Domi has proven he cannot play up the middle, Scott Laughton is primarily a fourth-liner and David Kampf will either be traded or bought out.
A deal along the lines of Jake McCabe’s four-year contract with deferred money to keep the cap hit under $5 million per season could be where the two sides end up.
Knies, Knies, Very Knies
The other priority is winger Matthew Knies, who said last week that an offer sheet with another club is not what he’s looking for and he wants to stay in Toronto. Friedman said the Leafs are well aware of the threat of an offer sheet and do not believe it will get to that point, which means they will get a deal done before the offer sheet threat comes to fruition after July 1. Treliving reportedly spoke to Knies representatives about what a new deal would look like around the trade deadline, and thinks that an extension would be above the AAV of Calgary’s Matt Coronato ($6.5 million).
Knies is the most important piece of business that Treliving has to complete this summer. After a 29-goal season on the top line and with Marner likely leaving, the Leafs must get him signed for as long and as cheaply as possible. An eight-year deal could come in at around $8 million.
With Marner, Toronto will be looking for clarity from agent Darren Ferris about whether his client is interested in returning to the Leafs or not. This is indicative of Treliving wanting to prepare possible options, such as trading Marner’s negotiating rights before July 1 or a possible sign-and-trade to give Marner an eight-year deal and Toronto the opportunity to recoup some draft capital. Any of these moves would have to be in concert with Ferris and the Marner camp, but an eight-year deal would benefit both camps in the long run.
