Veteran signings provide competition
CH-CHANGES: NHL-ready players help buy teams like Maple Leafs some time as rebuild gains traction
Stopgaps come in all shapes and sizes. It all depends, really, on what holes need filling.
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, there are plenty of holes on a roster that managed just 30 wins last season. Even more so, now that Phil Kessel is gone.
So it makes sense that the team has been busy in the off-season, signing five players in the last week.
The latest was Shawn Matthias, who signed a one-year contract worth $2.3 million US. The 6-foot4, 216-pound versatile forward is expected to play centre or wing on one of the top three lines.
But a better way of looking at his potential role is to say that he buys Toronto some time.
For the Leafs, this is the most pressing need in the off-season. Forget who will replace Kessel’s offence or who will play with James van Riemsdyk on the top line. It does not really matter. The team, which finished with the fourth-worst record last season, is planning to finish near the bottom of the standings again.
But what the Leafs want to avoid is doing so with Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Scott Harrington or any of the team’s other top-end prospects in the lineup. That is where Matthias and other free agent acquisitions, such as forwards P.A. Parenteau, Daniel Winnik, Mark Arcobello and defenceman Matt Hunwick, come in.
They are stopgaps. They buy the Leafs a year. Maybe more.
It’s a bonus that Matthias, who could be a hot commodity at the trade deadline, will likely be shopped for picks or prospects before the season is over. But his most important role is allowing the Leafs to take their time developing prospects.
You cannot tell Connor Brown, who led AHL rookies in scoring with 61 points, that he has to spend another year in the minors because the team does not want to subject him to a miserable rebuilding season.
You cannot tell Marner or Nylander or Kapanen that they have to wait a year or more for the team to get good. But what you can do is make it harder for them to make the team by signing established players.
If Brown wants a roster spot, he has to take it away from Matthias. If Marner, Nylander or Kapanen wants one, they have to beat out Parenteau, Winnik or the other players Toronto has accumulated through trade or free agency this summer.
“We want it to be difficult for our young guys to make our roster. We don’t want it to be easy,” said Leafs interim general manager Kyle Dubas. “We don’t want them to come in and be able to walk right onto a team. That’s not going to be good for anybody, because it means they’re not going to be supported by anybody on the club. For us, we want them to have a challenge.
“If they can beat out one of those established NHL guys, then it means they’re ready to play. That’s going to be up to them.”
The reason why the Detroit Red Wings are able to take their time with prospects is because the team makes it so difficult for them to make the team. For years, a player such as Jonathan Ericsson had to beat out one of Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Brian Rafalski, Brad Stuart, Chris Chelios, Andreas Lilja, Brett Lebda and Derek Meech for a roster spot.
The Leafs are trying to do the same.
“Patience is the key,” said Dubas. “We’re not going to bring them up unless they’re ready to stay all the time. We want them to be 100 per cent ready to play for the Maple Leafs. We don’t want them to start with the Marlies, then go back to the Leafs, then go back to the Marlies.”
Matthias, who scored a career best 18 goals with the Vancouver Canucks last season, might not have a ceiling as high as Marner’s or Nylander’s. But at this stage in their careers, Matthias is the better player. The same goes for Parenteau, Winnik and even Arcobello.
What you do not want is a scenario similar to what the Leafs have experienced in the past, where players like Luke Schenn or Nazem Kadri were making the team because of a lack of alternatives.
“In Florida it was the same thing,” said the 27-year-old Matthias, a native of Mississauga. “We went through rebuilds and everything. It’s going to be tough. There’s going to have to be a lot of hard work put in. I’m coming in, I think there’s a good opportunity here for me to show that I can be a part of this team and hopefully grow with them and I’m excited for the challenge.
“I think there’s a good opportunity here, for sure. They’re in a rebuild, they’re looking for guys who are going to come here and want to be here and that’s me. I watched these guys growing up my whole life.”