The free agent forward class this summer is deep.
Not in star power, but in useful players with a wide range of skill sets, many of whom could help the Toronto Maple Leafs.
We identified the 10 best fits earlier this month. Here, we dig deeper, eyeing seven middle-six/bottom-six types (listed in alphabetical order) who might be able to outplay their contracts and provide some much-needed value under the cap.
GO DEEPER
Maple Leafs UFA targets: The 10 best fits at forward
Michael Amadio
Position: Winger
Cap hit last season: $762,500
Three years ago, the Leafs signed Michael Amadio to a one-year, two-way deal in free agency. He played only three games before he was scooped up on waivers by Vegas where he found a home for three seasons as a useful bottom-six type. Amadio could bring the Leafs a sneaky, potentially, low-cost source of secondary scoring from lower in the lineup, likely a fourth-line gig on the wing of David Kämpf. Amadio scored 41 goals over 193 regular season games in Vegas – 11 in 53 games, 16 in 67, and 14 in 73 games last season – while playing less than 13 minutes a night. He added five goals and 10 points in 16 games during the Golden Knights’ Cup run in 2023. He did it by making a commitment to get to the net. The Leafs want more of that in their lineup. Amadio is 6-foot-1 and over 200 pounds; he can play all three forward positions; and he just turned 28. He’d be a real upgrade on Ryan Reaves at the bottom of the Leafs lineup.
Advertisement
Teddy Blueger
Position: Centre, left wing
Cap hit last season: $1.9 million
Teddy Blueger led the Canucks’ most frequently deployed (and highly effective) line last season, playing the middle between Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua, another free agent who figures to be of interest to the Leafs. He also played a huge role on Vancouver’s much-improved penalty kill, leading the forwards in ice time during the regular season and playoffs. The Leafs could bring him in to fill a similar role – PK specialist and third-line centre. Blueger isn’t a big guy (6-foot, 185 pounds), but he plays a competitive, blue-collar kind of game. The issue with Blueger for the Leafs: He’s not going to bring much offence (though he did match a career-high with 28 points last season) and this team already has one bottom-six centre (Kämpf) with similar limitations. How much offence can the Leafs get from their bottom six if those lines are led by Blueger and Kämpf? Still, absent a higher-end upgrade in the middle, Blueger makes some sense as an upgrade on Pontus Holmberg in the 3C spot if the price is similar to last season.
Connor Brown
Position: Winger
Cap hit last season: $775,000
Connor Brown had an excellent playoffs for the Oilers. His former agent, Jeff Jackson, is the Oilers’ CEO of hockey ops. Edmonton will presumably try to bring Brown back next season. If, however, the Oilers can’t find the cap space to make that happen, the Leafs should inquire about a reunion. Brown had a challenging regular season. He finished with only four goals in 71 games. It was his first year back after missing most of the 2022-23 season with a torn ACL. There’s reason to think that year two after the injury will be smoother. His playoff performance has hinted at that possibility. He’s also unlikely to shoot 3.7 percent again. A season of 15-20 goals wouldn’t be the least bit surprising for Brown, especially if he found a role on one of the Leafs’ top two lines. He’s probably best suited to a third-line gig with a whole lot of penalty killing on the side. That’s the role he played in the Stanley Cup Final, teaming up with Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark on what was essentially a safety-valve line for Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch, the kind he used when his team needed a safe shift. The fact that Brown elevated his game in the postseason should obviously be attractive to the Leafs, too.
Advertisement
Anthony Duclair
Position: Winger
Cap hit last season: $3 million
Anthony Duclair is on the smaller side – 5-foot-11 and right around 200 pounds – but that shouldn’t rule him out for Brad Treliving and company. Why? Duclair can score, and the Leafs can use more sure things like that from the middle of their lineup, especially if the cost is right. Duclair had 24 goals for the Sharks and Lightning last season and 31 for the Panthers two seasons before that. He’s quick, he’s competitive, he’s experienced and he could conceivably play on lines one, two, or three for the Leafs.
Duclair probably won’t cost as much as say, Tyler Bertuzzi, in free agency and there’s reason to think he can deliver similar, if not, greater, production.
The two had similar stat lines last season:
- Duclair: 24 goals, 42 points in 73 games
- Bertuzzi: 21 goals, 43 points in 80 games
The difference? Duclair cost $2.5 million less on the cap.
Mattias Janmark
Position: Winger
Cap hit last season: $1 million
Like Brown, his Oilers sidekick, Mattias Janmark really struggled to score during the regular season. He had two separate droughts of more than 20 games, including a 27-game dry spell before the postseason. The Leafs wouldn’t be adding Janmark with the hopes of much offence – though 10ish goals from the third or fourth line is probably a fair bet for the 31-year-old, who shot only 6 percent last season and has scored in double figures in four of eight seasons. Janmark’s appeal is more about the stuff that won’t show up on the scoresheet. Like Brown, he’s a quality penalty killer and trustworthy defender who plays a pesky game that would fit anywhere in the Leafs’ bottom-six equation. His most frequent linemate over two seasons with the Oilers was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. A glue-guy type, Janmark has tons of playoff experience (91 games), including two trips to the final – the Oilers this season and the Stars in 2020.
Advertisement
Jordan Martinook
Position: Winger
Cap hit last season: $1.8 million
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour offered this glowing assessment of Jordan Martinook a couple years back: “He’s one of the most high-energy guys in the NHL. His pace, every time he’s out there, you see it, you notice it. He’s hard to play against. And so you put that on a line that maybe doesn’t quite have it going, and all of a sudden it changes the dynamic.”
That’s the kind of player the Leafs could use in the middle of their lineup, a reliable veteran who will play hard and give a boost to whatever line he’s on. Martinook spent most of the last two seasons in Carolina (where he wore a letter as an alternate captain) playing alongside Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast on a line that regularly took on top talent. Depending on how they build their lineup, the Leafs could use Martinook in a similar capacity. Or they could deploy him as the defensive conscience of the second line, a Calle Järnkrok-like option on the left side. Martinook punched in 23 five-on-five goals the past two seasons, the same number as Järnkrok contributed to the Leafs. He’d be another piece for Craig Berube to move around, an energetic, responsible, double-digit goal producer who would bring some of Carolina’s PK expertise to Toronto.
Stefan Noesen
Position: Winger
Cap hit last season: $762,500
Like a couple of the other players in this bunch, the Leafs had Stefan Noesen once upon a time. He never got a chance to do much of anything though, playing in only one game during the 2020-21 season. He eventually landed in Carolina and became a valuable, budget-friendly depth contributor for the Hurricanes. Noesen averaged 13.5 goals and 36.5 points the past two seasons, playing about 12 minutes a night, and making right around the NHL minimum salary. That included the kind of secondary power play pop — 10 goals and 26 points, doing his work from right around the blue paint — that the Leafs could use on their No. 2 unit. Noesen is a solid 6-foot-1, 206 pounds and he can skate. At worst, he’s a fourth liner. More likely, he figures into the mix as a reliable third liner who can chip in 10-15 goals at a bargain rate.
Stats and research courtesy of Cap Friendly, Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Reference, and Evolving Hockey
(Top photo of Connor Brown: Eliot J. Schechter / NHLI via Getty Images)