While regular season success hasn’t exactly translated to postseason success in the Auston Matthews era, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been a generally very good team since the star centre joined the team in 2016.
Most of this success has come from homegrown talent. Along with Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly are all Maple Leaf draftees.
But free agency has also played a role in the team’s successes and failures. Most importantly, John Tavares joined the Leafs on a seven-year, $11M AAV deal in 2018. Other impact players, like T.J. Brodie and Michael Bunting, joined the Maple Leafs through free agency.
But for every good move, there seems to be a bad one. From Lou Lamoriello, to Kyle Dubas, to Brad Treliving, no general manager is perfect. So let’s break down some of the Leafs worst free agent moves in the Matthews era.
Patrick Marleau
Year Signed: 2017
Contract Details: Three years, $6.25M AAV
Adding an experienced, dependable leader made a lot of sense in 2017 when Patrick Marleau was signed to a three-year, $6.25M AAV deal. The core was still super young, needing guidance and experience to get to the next level.
But this deal was horrid from the start. Giving a 38-year-old a three-year deal is insane in itself, but with Marleau coming off two straight sub-50 point seasons, the money didn’t make sense either.
In Toronto, Marleau scored 84 points in 164 games. Solid, but not even close to worth $6.25 a year. After year two, he was traded.
You know a contract is bad when you have to attach a first-round pick to get rid of it, and that’s what Kyle Dubas had to do after 2019. Needing to make room for the core four’s new contracts, Toronto sent the Carolina Hurricanes the pick that turned into Seth Jarvis (wouldn’t he be great for the Leafs?) to dump Marleau’s money. You’d think a GM would foresee having to pay his stars a ton of money, and avoid giving an aging forward three years, but no.
Petr Mrazek
Year Signed: 2021
Contract Details: Three years, $3.8M AAV
Heading into 2021, the goal was to have a Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek tandem in net. Looking back, this is a bit ridiculous, but at the time it didn’t seem too bad.
Mrazek was coming off three straight solid seasons for the Carolina Hurricanes, posting save percentages of .914, .905, and .923. He was seen as a dependable 1B, capable of playing a good chunk of games while putting up decent numbers.
Almost $4M seemed a bit much, but the Leafs needed a good partner for Campbell, and thought they had their guy in Mrazek.
They couldn’t have been more wrong, as the netminder played just 20 games with the Leafs before getting hurt and being dumped to the Blackhawks in the offseason, again with a first-round pick attached.
His 20 games were a disaster, as he posted a .888 SV% and looked even worse. It was a contract that Leaf Nation knew was a failure right from the beginning, and cost the Leafs another first-round pick.
Zach Hyman
Year (Not) Signed: 2021
Contract Details: Seven years, $5.5M AAV
It’s not a contract, but the Leafs biggest free agency mistake is easily letting Zach Hyman walk in 2021. Now, Hyman is playing on probably the best deal in the league, making $5.5M a year to score 54 goals with the Edmonton Oilers.
This one hurts, as Hyman wanted to come back but was never even offered a deal. The price was seen as too high, and the Leafs couldn’t afford to spend even more on a forward group that was (still is) one of the most expensive in the league.
Hyman was definitely not the player he is now, but he was still fantastic, and complimented the top six perfectly. He’s exactly the type of player the Leafs have been looking for ever since he left, which makes the mistake so obvious.
It’s safe to say Hyman would be a huge difference-maker if still on the roster, and losing him may have cost the Leafs playoff rounds in the past couple years. He’s that good, and watching him become a star in Edmonton, on the best deal in the league, is painful.
Nick Ritchie
Year Signed: 2021
Contract Details: Two years, $2.5M AAV
Boy, the 2021 offseason was a disaster for Dubas. Instead of bringing back Hyman for $5.5M, the Leafs ended up with 53 combined games of Petr Mrazek and Nick Ritchie for $6.3M.
After scoring 15 goals in 56 games with the Boston Bruins the year prior, Ritchie was supposed to be the direct replacement of Hyman. Their archetypes are similar, both grinding, net front wingers with a knack for scoring, but it became clear very quickly Ritchie was not Hyman.
Starting the season on Matthews’ wing, Ritchie scored two goals in 33 games, was waived, sent down to the Marlies, and traded in February. His game was weak, as he was prone to mistakes, defensively irresponsible, and couldn’t find the back of the net.
Ritchie’s career never recovered from his time in Toronto, as he’s moved to Europe to play professionally.
In conclusion
It’s fair to say the 2021 offseason was a giant step backwards for the Leafs. Three massive blunders turned one of the league’s best forwards into two players who negatively impacted the team, and the Leafs are still haunted by it.
Whether logical at the time or not, all of these moves turned out to be disasters, costing the Leafs wins, money, and draft picks.
Despite this, though, the Leafs have consistently been one of the best teams in the league thanks to their great drafting and development. When the Leafs have top-end picks, they hit on them, and are great at finding value deeper in the pool.
Maybe the organization shouldn’t have sent so many picks away to make up for their free agency mistakes.
