The NHL season looms ever closer, but a key part of the Toronto Maple Leafs youth movement remains unsigned, reports the Toronto Star’s Kevin McGran. Breakout player Connor Brown is still an unsigned restricted free agent after finishing his ELC this past season.
Expect Brown to get a significant raise from his three-year ELC playing him $2.775MM over three years. In his first full season, Brown put up 20G and 16A in 82 games. The problem is that the Leafs are hard up for cap space. The team had to use the rarely-invoked offseason LTIR to fit in all their contracts. They should have some space come puck drop, but every dollar is important going forward for this organization.
Brown is not alone, however. Forwards David Pastrnak, Alexander Wennberg, and Bo Horvat all remain unsigned. Many pundits assumed that all parties were waiting for the Edmonton Oilers to come to terms with Leon Draisaitl to set the market. Now that Draisaitl is locked up—8 years at $8.5MM a year—more RFAs should sign with their teams.