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Maple Leafs Sign Jake McCabe To Five-Year Extension

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9:52 a.m.: The first-year salary of McCabe’s extension will be paid out mostly via signing bonus, reports David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The second, third and fourth years of the deal also include some signing bonus money, while the fifth and final season is paid entirely via base salary. McCabe’s total compensation each year breaks down as follows:

2025-26: $6MM
2026-27: $5.5MM (including deferred money)
2027-28: $5.5MM (including deferred money)
2028-29: $3.6MM
2029-30: $3.6MM

9:02 a.m.: The Maple Leafs have signed defenseman Jake McCabe to a five-year extension, the team announced today. It keeps the blue liner off next summer’s UFA market and makes him cost $4.51MM against the salary cap through the 2029-30 campaign. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports the total value of the deal is higher than the cap hit indicates due to deferred money in the 2026-27 and 2027-28 campaigns. McCabe’s agency, Bartlett Hockey, confirms the total value of the contract is $23.5MM, equating to an AAV of $4.7MM.

It’s hardly unexpected news. Friedman reported at the beginning of September that McCabe and the Leafs had begun extension talks, which McCabe confirmed at the beginning of training camp. Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos added shortly before the regular season started that the two sides were close to a deal, although the final contract is shorter than the six-year, $30MM pact he predicted.

For the past couple of years, Toronto has benefitted from McCabe’s services at a bargain-bin price. He signed a four-year, $16MM contract ($4MM AAV) with the Blackhawks in free agency in 2021, but with the team squarely in a rebuild, they traded him and depth forward Sam Lafferty to the Leafs before the 2023 trade deadline. Chicago retained half of McCabe’s salary in the deal, meaning he’s cost only $2MM against Toronto’s cap.

Even his full $4MM cap hit would have likely been below market value for McCabe, who’s averaged north of 20 minutes per game in a Maple Leafs sweater. Last season was the 31-year-old’s best, as he posted a career-high 28 points (8 G, 20 A) in 73 games and a +20 rating.

His possession metrics back up those numbers, painting the picture of an extremely valuable two-way, top-four defender. McCabe’s usage trended toward the defensive zone at even strength, but even still, the Leafs controlled 50.6% of shot attempts with him on the ice last season and 51.6% of expected goals. He was also one of their most physically involved players, finishing third on the team in blocks (129) and second in hits (219).

McCabe is off to a similar start this season. He’s averaging 21:09 per game, which is on pace for a career-high while adding three assists and a +6 rating in nine appearances. He has 17 blocks and 19 hits, ranking second on the team in each category, and the Leafs are controlling 55.4% of shot attempts and 54.7% of expected goals at even strength with him on the ice.

He’ll never be a significant factor on the scoresheet, but he’s not an offensive liability. He can be deployed in power-play situations if necessary and is good in transition. Having him under contract through his age-36 season could be dicey, but for now, just north of $4.5MM is an extremely affordable cap hit for what his all-around game provides.

The Maple Leafs now have $66.23MM in cap space tied up in 15 players for next season. Assuming a projected cap increase to $92.5MM, that gives them roughly $26.27MM in space to fill eight roster spots, including new deals for UFA forwards Mitch Marner and John Tavares and RFA Matthew Knies.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Pacioretty To Return From Lower-Body Injury

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  • Maple Leafs winger Max Pacioretty will return from his lower-body injury tonight versus Boston, relays TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link). The 35-year-old has played in five games so far this season, scoring twice.  Pacioretty is owed a bonus of just over $313K when he reaches the 10-game mark and even with Toronto not playing him full-time, he should be able to hit that over the next few weeks as long as he stays healthy.

Potential Trade Destinations For Timothy Liljegren

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It’s no surprise that defenseman Timothy Liljegren’s time with the Toronto Maple Leafs may be coming to an end. The former 17th overall pick of the 2017 NHL Draft has only suited up in one game for the Maple Leafs up to this point in the regular season and it doesn’t appear that the organization is willing to expand much upon that total.

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Lower-Body Injury For Jarnkrok Believed To Be A Sports Hernia

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  • Maple Leafs winger Calle Jarnkrok’s lower-body injury is believed to be a sports hernia, reports Sportsnet’s Luke Fox. The 33-year-old has filled an important middle-six role for Toronto over the last two years but hasn’t been able to play this season due to the injury.  Jarnkrok is currently on LTIR and while he’s eligible to return in early November, that doesn’t seem likely to happen at this point as he has yet to skate since sustaining the injury.

Maple Leafs Activate Joseph Woll From Injured Reserve

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The Maple Leafs announced they’ve activated goaltender Joseph Woll from injured reserve. Netminder Dennis Hildeby was returned to AHL Toronto from his emergency loan in a corresponding transaction to open a roster spot.

There’s a chance Woll will make his season debut and start tonight against his hometown Blues, per TSN’s Darren Dreger. Even if not, he’ll dress as the backup to Anthony Stolarz, who initially signed with Toronto in free agency to be a 1B option behind Woll but has stolen the show thus far with a .938 SV% and 1.83 GAA through five games.

Woll, 26, spent the first couple of weeks of the regular season on the shelf due to what head coach Craig Berube called “lower-body tightness.” He was on Toronto’s opening night roster but landed on IR hours before their season opener against the Canadiens on Oct. 9. The netminder spent over a week off the ice before returning to practice last Friday.

A third-round pick of the Leafs back in 2016, Woll was a full-time NHL option for the first time last season. A high ankle sprain cost him nearly three months in the middle of the season and limited him to 25 appearances in what amounted to a three-goalie rotation with Martin Jones and Ilya Samsonov, neither of whom are still in the organization. He churned out slightly above-average numbers, logging a .907 SV%, 2.94 GAA, and 2.6 GSAA with a 12-11-1 record.

That showing, plus a sublime .964 SV% and 0.86 GAA in nearly 140 minutes of postseason action in Toronto’s first-round loss to the Bruins, earned him a three-year, $11MM contract extension over the summer that goes into effect for the 2025-26 season. This year, he still costs just $766.7K against the salary cap as part of a three-year, $2.3MM deal he signed back in 2022.

Assuming he can stay healthy for the rest of the campaign, he’ll surely eclipse the career-high 23 starts and 25 appearances he set last season. Whether he takes the lion’s share of the starts the rest of the way is another question entirely, given how well Stolarz has started the campaign, but it would be surprising to see the Leafs deviate too far away from a 50/50 split between the pipes the rest of the way.

For the 23-year-old Hildeby, his NHL debut was a mixed showing. The 2022 fourth-round pick had been on emergency call-ups at some points last season but never got into a game. Now the No. 3 option behind Stolarz and Woll after outplaying veteran Matt Murray during training camp, he was called up as soon as Woll landed on IR. He made two starts while backing up Stolarz to begin the season, looking excellent in his debut against the Devils in Toronto’s second game. But after making 21 saves on 23 shots in his debut, the Swede gave up six goals on 38 shots against the Blue Jackets in a 6-2 loss on Tuesday.

Hildeby now returns to the Marlies, where he posted a .913 SV%, 2.41 GAA, 21-11-7 record, and four shutouts in 41 games last season. It was his first in North America after spending his entire development in his native Sweden. The 6’7″, 223-lb netminder earned an All-Star Game nod for those strong numbers.

Max Pacioretty Considered Day-To-Day With Lower-Body Injury

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Mitch Marner and John Tavares project as the two most high-profile players on the Maple Leafs roster eligible for an extension during the 2024-25 NHL season. The one seemingly closest to the finish line, however, is defenseman Jake McCabe with reports shortly before the season began indicating an extension was close between the two sides.

If McCabe’s camp seeks a salary similar to 5.6% of the salary cap like DeMelo that would put his AAV at around $5.15MM. Since McCabe shares a desire to stay with the Maple Leafs beyond this season Toronto could manage to lower his AAV if they add a fifth year to his contract. It’s still a negotiation requiring fine-tuning with the Maple Leafs having several pending unrestricted and restricted free agents on the roster. It’s likely a situation they’ll want to avoid slow-playing less losing their third-most valuable defenseman.

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Oliver Ekman-Larsson Fined By DOPS

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Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry will be a healthy scratch for a second straight game tonight when the Pens take on the Calgary Flames. Jarry sat out Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets and hasn’t played since he gave up three goals on five shots last Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres.

The Penguins are currently carrying three NHL goaltenders on their road trip through Western Canada and have been reportedly trying to get extra work in for Jarry in practice as he tries to steady his game and move on from the struggles that plagued him since late last season.

In other Eastern Conference notes:

  • Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell isn’t in a hurry to add to his roster via trade despite a rash of injuries (as per James Murphy of Responsible Gambler). The Blue Jackets will be without key contributors Boone Jenner, Erik Gudbranson and Kent Johnson for quite a while, but as Waddell puts it, the team knows where they are at, and they know that acquiring short-term pieces doesn’t make sense at this stage of their rebuild. The Blue Jackets have been turning over their roster for five years now and appear unwilling to rush themselves back into the playoff picture by sacrificing the future. The Blue Jackets have several young players on their NHL roster who have performed well in the early going and have a decent pipeline of prospects on the way to the NHL.
  • The NHL Department of Player Safety has announced that Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been fined $5000 for running interference on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jake Guentzel in last night’s contest. On the play, Ekman-Larsson was the puck carrier and threw a reverse hit on an unsuspecting Guentzel knocking him to the ice. Guentzel remained down for a brief moment before getting back to his feet. OEL received a minor penalty on the play for interference. The fine is the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the money from it will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Evening Notes: Woll, Guhle, AHL Eligibility

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David Alter of The Hockey News is reporting that Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll could be ready to return to action as early as Tuesday. The news comes from Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube, who said it’s possible the 26-year-old would play tomorrow night when Toronto takes on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Woll has been dealing with groin tightness since training camp in early October. His injury has thrust summer free agent signing Anthony Stolarz into a lot of work early in the season as the veteran netminder has played five of Toronto’s first six games entering action tonight.

Woll signed a three-year extension early in the summer and appeared to have the inside track to the starter role as he entered training camp. The Dardenne Prairie, Missouri native was terrific last season for the Maple Leafs, posting 7.2 goals saved above expected (as per Money Puck) in 25 games.

In other evening notes:

  • Eric Engels of Sportsnet reports that Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury and did not participate in Canadiens practice earlier today. Guhle has been dealing with the ailment since late last week and didn’t play on Saturday night against the Islanders. The 22-year-old missed nearly all of Canadiens training camp after having his appendix removed and has had an uneven start to the season, posting good offensive numbers, but has been abysmal on the possession front (34.5% CF% at even strength as per Hockey Reference).
  • Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News is reporting that a source of his has told him that the next NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement could have AHL eligibility as an option for 19-year-olds written into it. The news could be another challenge for the CHL who are preparing to navigate the new NCAA eligibility rules. However, the news would be good for players such as Sabres forward prospect Matt Savoie who just spent his age-19 season in the WHL last year.

Morning Notes: Broberg, Holmberg, Walman

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One of the league’s most eye-opening offseason acquisitions has been making a significant impact with his new club early on. When the Blues signed former Oilers Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to successful offer sheets, most viewed their contracts as a bet on their upside rather than their current prowess. That was especially true in Broberg’s case, as the Blues inked him to a two-year deal with a $4.58MM cap hit despite the 2019 eighth overall pick spending most of last season in the minors.

But early on, Broberg’s been worth the cash and then some. He’s embarked on a six-game point streak to begin his tenure in St. Louis, tying for the team lead in scoring with six points (1 G, 5 A) and tying for the team lead with a +6 rating. What’s more – all of that production has come at even strength, and he’s averaging nearly 20 minutes per game. There’s more about Broberg’s early-season emergence in today’s video breakdown from Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (subscription required).

Here are a couple of more things from around the hockey world this morning:

  • A successful offseason by most accounts from Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving means more forward depth for new head coach Craig Berube to play with. That’s led to a rotation of notable healthy scratches thus far, including late-offseason pickup Max Pacioretty. The next one might be Pontus Holmberg, who Berube said “has got to battle a little bit harder” after last weekend’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers (via Nick Barden of The Hockey News). He was potentially looking to lock down a spot as the team’s third-line center, and while he’s done well in the faceoff dot with a career-high 55.2 FOW%, he’s played mostly on the wing thus far and has an assist and a -1 rating through five appearances. Possession numbers have been extremely unkind to him in heavy defensive usage as well.
  • Defender Jake Walman was a surprise mover this summer when the Red Wings attached a second-round pick to deal him to the Sharks. Most thought at least one Detroit defenseman would be on the move, but not one of the team’s best skaters who’d flourished in a top-pairing role alongside Moritz Seider over the past couple of seasons. Walman recently spoke to The Athletic’s Max Bultman about the move, which he said left him “shocked and heartbroken.” He’s off to a fresh start in San Jose, where he’s averaging over 23 minutes per game as their top blue-line option with two assists and a -2 rating through six appearances.

East Notes: Woll, Bunting, Jarry

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Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll revealed to the media that he has been dealing with groin tightness (as per Nick Barden of The Hockey News). The issue has kept him out of regular-season action, but Woll feels as though he should be back sooner rather than later.

It’s possible that the issue could have occurred during training camp in early October, but Woll didn’t get into the specifics regarding where and when the groin issue began to surface. During the moment in question on October 3rd, Woll slid across his crease to make a save and looked to be in discomfort as he moved back to his feet.

The Maple Leafs are unlikely to rush Woll as Anthony Stolarz has been terrific this season thus far.

In other Eastern Conference notes:

  • Michelle Crechiolo of Pens Inside Scoop tweeted the Pittsburgh Penguins line rushes yesterday, which appeared to show forward Michael Bunting as a healthy scratch. Bunting was moved off the second line in the Penguins loss to the Hurricanes on Friday night and he was also moved off the second power-play unit. Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports tweeted that Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan was asked on Friday by reporters about Bunting’s performance this season and replied, “I think our expectation is higher.” Bunting has struggled this season, with just a single assist in six games. However, his underlying numbers remain strong and could be an indicator of bad luck rather than bad play.
  • Josh Yohe of The Athletic writes that Pittsburgh Penguins general manager doesn’t appear keen on placing goaltender Tristan Jarry on waivers as a way to address the team’s goaltending predicament, not yet anyway. Jarry has struggled dating back to last year when he didn’t start the Penguins’ final 13 regular season games and is arguably third in Pittsburgh’s current goaltending ranks. The Penguins are carrying three goaltenders on the roster and are bringing Jarry, Joel Blomqvist, and Alex Nedeljkovic on their road trip through Western Canada. Jarry currently has a .836 save percentage and a 5.47 goals-against average in three games but is owed $5.375MM this season and for an additional three years after that, making him nearly unmovable.

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