Despite rampant speculation about the Toronto Maple Leafs interest in players like Scott Laughton, Brock Nelson, and Brayden Schenn, GM Brad Treliving dumped cold water on those big cap moves. As per Mark Masters, “Sometimes moving the needle is maybe not the sexy headline-grabbing move.”
With some help from PuckPedia, I’ve decided to dedicate an article to absolute bargain-bin contracts. Of course, Treliving showed us last year that tinkering around the edges aren’t necessarily a small cap hit (Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin), however the aim of today’s article is to see if there are any cheap players (under a cap hit of $1.3M AAV) that Treliving could add that I think could make an impact on this team. Additionally, I’m ignoring players on their ELCs, I just don’t think it would make sense for them to be available.
Anthony Beauvillier
When Beauvillier has had good deployment and ice-time, he’s usually pretty productive. From his age 22–25 season, the former first round pick averaged 16 goals and 35 points a year while playing third line minutes.
If Toronto wants someone who can play throughout the lineup, and maybe provide some secondary offence for cheap, there are few better potential options than Beauvillier. He’s been relegated to a fourth-line role the last year and a half between Nashville and Pittsburgh and near the end of his tenure with Vancouver.
I think his speed and ability to handle the puck will make him a good fit alongside David Kampf and Steven Lorentz. Kampf is someone who could really benefit from Beauvillier, especially as we’ve seen him excel when he has pacier wingers. Beauvillier’s ability to transition the puck on his own also makes him a good fit for that line where no one currently seems to love to have the puck on their stick.
The issue for Beauvillier (although it looks like it’s begun to improve as he’s taken on a decreased role) has often been his accountability in the defensive end. He seems to have turned a corner in that respect, even factoring in on the penalty kill for Pittsburgh, where his speed has been a weapon.
Despite being a smaller player, he’s really ratcheted up the hits this season (101), and even with muted deployment, the 27-year-old still has 12 goals this season while shooting pretty on par with his career averages in percentage.
I’m unsure how willing Penguins GM Kyle Dubas will be to trade with his former team, but I’d definitely be checking in on Beauvillier. At worst, he’s a re-roll on the dice of the Connor Dewar trade from last year (I could even see a world where the two are traded for one another)
Alexey Toropchenko
This name is a popular one amongst Leafs Nation. The 25-year-old still has one more year after this one at a cap hit of just $1.7M (only $1.25M for this year). The offence has come crashing down for the 6’6” forward after back-to-back seasons at around 20 points, he’s only on pace for around 13 this year.
With the Blues open for business and names like Dylan Holloway and Zack Bolduc pushing Toropchenko into a full-time fourth line role, there may be an opportunity for Toronto to reunite Berube with one of his favourite depth players from St. Louis.
He plays with physicality (140 hits this year already) and logs around 1.3 penalty kill minutes a night which gives the Leafs more flexibility on their special teams units. When Toropchenko is playing well, he’s capable of chipping in around 10–15 goals a season (the shooting percentage is unrealistically low this year at just 1.9%). He also skates well for his size, making him an ideal partner alongside David Kampf and Steven Lorentz on Toronto’s fourth line.
There’s familiarity with a coach he’s had success with, he checks a ton of boxes that Treliving usually values, and he’s got term on his deal.
Ty Dellandrea
I’m not going to lie, all three of these players I’ve listed to this point fill the exact same role, fourth line wing, with Beauvillier at least having the skillset to play higher up.
I like Dellandrea, I think he’s really committed to this fourth-line role. He hits and he plays hard. He was really good for Dallas when he got into playoff games in a fourth-line role, and despite being on a pretty abysmal team in San Jose, his defensive numbers have managed to stay afloat.
More importantly, he’s got centre and winger flexibility, he’s won 50% of his face-offs this season and a career 48% guy since becoming an NHL regular. More importantly, he’s right-handed on a team that has exclusively left-handed centres.
Again, he and Dewar are probably interchangeable, but the handedness and ability to be decent on the face-off dot makes Dellandrea at least someone I’d consider swapping for as Dewar hasn’t impressed this season.
Defencemen
There aren’t many exciting cheap defensive options in this price range; in fact, you see two Leafs here in Timmins and Myers who Toronto would likely be hoping to replace with this trade. I was all over Ty Emberson last year, but I just don’t see someone of that quality this season available in the same price range.
I considered Nick Blankenburg, whom I’ve been a fan of since his Columbus days, but I just can’t see Treliving going out and trading for a 5’9” defenceman. Daniil Miromanov and Kyle Burroughs are options as well, but they’re not even everyday players for Calgary and LA. I’m not sure they’re a worthwhile upgrade for Toronto unless it’s an even one-for-one swap between them and say, Timmins or Benoit.
A need for more depth
Overall, I think Toronto has done a good job giving their depth players a ton of exposure this year. I think the three names we’ve mentioned have new qualities they could add to our current depth forwards (Beauvillier: offensive creation, Toropchenko: size, Dellandrea: handedness) but defensively, I just don’t think the depth options that could be available for trade are just meaningful upgrades over Myers and Timmins.
We’ll see if Treliving can make something work with retention for a more expensive player. As always, let me know your thoughts and if there are any players making less than $1.3M that Toronto could also target.
