The Toronto Maple Leafs went through the opening days of free agency not adding a player who could make up for the departure of Mitch Marner. GM Brad Treliving made a move to acquire playmaking winger Matias Maccelli from Utah, but has admitted in interviews that he is likely looking to replace Marner in the aggregate, having two or three players making up for his offense.
The Leafs may be willing to start the season giving rookie Easton Cowan or the more experienced Nick Robertson a chance at a top-six role, but if Treliving does not feel that either are capable of playing higher in the lineup, then an answer to their dilemma will either come from the few options left in free agency or in the trade market. Over the next few weeks, we will look at a few players who might be fits for one reason or another for Toronto.
Jack Roslovic
The 28-year-old was a 2015 first-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets coming out of the US National Development Program, where he played with the likes of Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Tage Thompson, and Charlie McAvoy. After one year of college hockey at Miami (OH), Roslovic turned pro and played one full year in the AHL and split time between the Manitoba Moose and the Jets before becoming a full-time NHLer in 2018.
The Columbus, OH native underachieved in three seasons with Winnipeg and was traded to the Blue Jackets along with Patrik Laine in the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal in January, 2021 and had more success in his hometown, scoring 34 points in a COVID-shortened season and reaching 20 goals for the first time in 2022, but his numbers declined the next two seasons and he was traded to the NY Rangers at the 2024 deadline.
After New York passed on re-signing Roslovic last summer, he signed a one-year, $2.8 million contract with Carolina, where he matched his career-high with 22 goals. After going through the initial wave of free agents, clubs like Toronto are looking for players willing to take a short-term deal. If he is looking for a multi-year contract, it is likely that the Leafs would not be interested in exhausting a sizable chunk of his available cap space, but if he is willing to take a one-year contract in the neighborhood of what he signed for in Carolina last summer, that is something Treliving might bite at.
