NHL Rumor Mill – June 12, 2024
Check out the latest on John Tavares, Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi and more in today’s Leafs-oriented NHL Rumor Mill.
LATEST MAPLE LEAFS SPECULATION
SPORTSNET: During Monday’s episode of “The Jeff Marek Show”, the host noted that the Utah franchise is most likely in business to acquire veteran players on short-term contracts. He had a conversation with someone who wondered if they could offer Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares a two-year contract extension with a “healthy number” as an enticement to waive his no-movement clause.

Toronto Maple Leafs captains John Tavares (NHL Images).
His guest, Elliotte Friedman, said he’s under the impression that Tavares intends to finish his current contract with the Maple Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Tavares has clearly stated his intent to honor his contract with the Leafs. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported last week that the 33-year-old center has no interest in waiving his no-movement clause. Leafs management will have to look elsewhere to shed some salary or use one of their notable players as trade bait to address other roster needs.
TORONTO STAR: Mark Colley recently reported Max Domi is making no secret of his desire to remain with the Maple Leafs. The 30-year-old forward is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
“I hope it works out, but we’ll see,” said Domi. He added that his agent is speaking with Leafs general manager Brad Treliving.
TORONTO SUN: Lance Hornby reports Domi met with Craig Berube and would love to play for the Leafs’ new head coach. He’d also like to spend more than one season in his hometown after playing for six other NHL teams before coming to Toronto.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Domi is finishing a one-year, $3 million contract with the Leafs. They have a projected $19.7 million in cap space for 2024-25 with 15 active roster players under contract. The Leafs must add a reliable starting goaltender and shore up their blueline. Domi might have to accept another one-year, cost-effective deal unless Treliving can free up additional cap room.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Adam Proteau listed three options for Tyler Bertuzzi should he head to free agency. One is re-signing with the Leafs, another is a reunion with the Detroit Red Wings, and the third is signing with the Nashville Predators.
Proteau puts Bertuzzi’s chances of staying in Toronto at 60/40. Meanwhile, the Red Wings and Predators have plenty of salary-cap space and could benefit from his gritty style.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: As with Domi, the Leafs cap space could complicate Bertuzzi’s efforts to stay in Toronto. If he’s looking to cash in on free agency this summer after taking a one-year deal with the Leafs last summer, he’ll likely find it elsewhere.
THE ATHLETIC: James Mirtle reports Leafs management remains very high on Laurent Brossoit as someone to share the goaltending duties next season with Joseph Woll. The 31-year-old Brossoit hasn’t played a lot but has put up good numbers. He’ll likely want to go to a good team where he has a chance to start more frequently.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Brossoit was also part of the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup run last spring. Laking over for sidelined starter Logan Thompson, he backstopped them to their first-round series victory over the Winnipeg Jets. He’d be a good, affordable addition to the Leafs.
TORONTO SUN: Terry Koshan believes Leafs GM Brad Treliving must also decide if he’ll retain his 2024 first-round pick or use it as trade bait for more immediate roster help.
The Leafs hold the 23rd overall pick in this year’s draft. They traded away their 2025 first-round to the Chicago Blackhawks in February 2023 for Jake McCabe, though that pick is top-10 protected.
Koshan speculated that pick could come into play if Treliving attempts a legitimate run at acquiring Calgary Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That pick will be part of the conversation if Treliving pursues Markstrom or another starter such as Boston’s Linus Ullmark or Nashville’s Juuse Saros.
I listen to Gord Stellick yesterday and he thinks Mitch Marner should move and believes Marner is being Selfish.
Stellick, said the eam owes to JT to stay because he came here and you’re not moving Matthews.
When questioned why not move Nylander his answer was Nylander embraces Toronto and ttat he can handle the media and fans and Marner loves Toronto but sulks when he is given criticism by the media and fans.
My reply would be Marner negotiated his contract in good faith and he will decide if he wants to be moved and where.
Yesterday williew asked where “I was going” with my views on the Senators and their expected moves this summer to improve the tam’s overall play, including why I was negative on the prospect of dealing for Markstrom or Ullmark, and content to remain with Korpisalo. I never got the opportunity to respond in detail yesterday, so – here goes.
First of all, I think Korpisalo has been unfairly maligned as the sole reason why the team failed – for the 7th straight year – to make the playoffs. To some degree that erroneous impression is similar to what Bobrovsky faced in Florida not that long ago – “overpaid and under-performing” was one caustic observation. Now Bobrovsky is being spoken of in connection with the Conn Smythe Award.
Over the course of his career – and with some pretty bad defensive teams in front of him – Bobrovsky has played 719 games with a 2.57gaa and a 0.915 save %. That save % based on a 40-shot game for example, works out to 36.6 saves. Korpisalo – also with some pretty weak defensive teams in front of him – has played 276 games with a 3.06 gaa and a 0.901 save %. Based on the same 40 shots, that 0.14 difference works out to 36.04 saves. Their difference in gaa over the same span is 0.09.
Where Bobrovsky and the Panthers are concerned, since joining them in 2019, when his first-year stats were 3.23gaa 0.900 save %, the team has systematically improved their D, their overall defensive strategy, and especially their pk structure.
THAT’S what Staios has to do – not try and deal Korpisalo now when any receiving team would likely demand sweeteners to take on his $4 mil per deal which has 4 years to run.
Thanks George,
My choice of goaltender would be Ullmark Over Markstrom.
Regarding Korpisalo, he has played well with the
LA Kings thats about it. and not with CBJ & the Sen’s…..
Sen’s had a good top 4 last year on d…..
with Sanderson, Zub, Chabot,Chychrun……❓
in 55 game’s played, Korpisalo only Won 21 games
I just dont see him getting any better at 30 yrs old
Staios is a Smart guy, if the asking price is to much for an Ullmark or Saros ❓he wont go there….
Im sure he will do the right thing, maybe they give 28 yr old UFA Alex Nedeljkovic a go Or maybe they give 27 yr old Ilya Samsonov a go on a 2 year deal
With 4 years left on Korpisalo contract ( $16.M) they would have to send out the 25th pick in the 1st round and maybe a 4th pick to move him to a re-building team…..
Korpisalo played 11 game for L.A. – hardly a decent measuring stick. The bottom line is, his career stats are hardly far-removed from those of Bobrovsky who, early in his Florida career, was being criticized in the same manner as Korpisalo is now.
The team management saw that his mediocre stats were more related to the kind of team he had in front of him,m and so went about systematically making adjustments, including bringing in a coach who knew how to formulate an overall defensive style to remove much of the unnecessary pressure on their goal-tending.
Now he’s talked about as a Conn Smythe winner and his improved team is on the verge of winning the cup thanks to those adjustments.
Williew, if Korpisalo was that bad in Clb, why did LA trade for him to be their starting goalie in the playoffs?
Per Hockeydb NHL GP
Ulmark 249GP 2.52 .918
Markstrom 483GP 2.73 .909
Korpisalo 276GP 3.06 .901
Not as bad has you say, in my opinion.
George. I totally agree. Trying to get out of from one or both goaltenders will cost way too much. Sens D is pretty bad. Too May good Left d. Apart from Sanderson and Zub the othe pairings were crap. Especially when chabot was injured. You need to start by fixing the d and getting a couple of solid two way forwards to help them. I’m hoping Yeo can bring some defensive structure. But I agree that the goalies can bounce back with the right d and structure in front of them.
Hey Pat,
LA kings seen what he was like and did not
Re-sign him Korpisalo
Then the Kings signed an other over the hill goaltender in X Sen’s tender Cam Talbot
once 99% of these goaltender hit 34 to 36 they are done…..
The Sen’s had the 2nd worst record in the NHL last season, Goaltending and d need work
100%
if not they are going no where if they bring these two back again😩
williew, the ONLY reason L.A. did not re-sign Korpisalo when he reached UFA status was because, having other contracts needing renewal, they could not match what Ottawa offered him under the cap.
I’m with George. And I renewed my season tickets based on the hope they keep Korpi/Forsberg tandem. They’re exactly the right goalies if this teams has any kind NOT Dj Smith type coaching. Structure, accountability, culture – use whatever buzz word you want….there’s a way a team can play that practically makes the goalie irrelevant.
There’s very little Sens news or noise going on right now. I don’t believe Staois is silly enough to pay crazy prices for other teams goalies while not being able to get rid of the one he has.
Finally, the goofballs and their blogs and televised radio shows (bonkers people even watch or listen) they literally have NOTHIN to talk about. It’s the quiet season. But some of these conversations and rumors just make so little sense and are made to incite and generate online traffic.
Why would Marner or Tavares wave to go anywhere???? As much as I hate Johnny the Snake T he’s a proud guy. He’s the captain. He probably feels like a failure not being able to get the Leafs anywhere post season. Marner and Mathews are great friends and the lockerroom is a fun place to come to. Toronto fan noise is hard to hear with all that money in your ears.
Dark G, IF Marner wants to sign an 8 year contract, he will waive his NMC for a preferred team. On the other hand, if Mitch wants to gamble on himself, expecting a banner year under a new head coach, then he will not waive. Marner has sustained few injuries over his career, expecting that good fortune to continue may be a costly mistake.
I hope he stays and look forward to seeing him play under Berube’s staff. Could be really, really good.
Don’t forget Marner played for Dale Hunter – Berube might just be his kind of coach.
So true re the Leafs top 5 contracts. Each was negotiated in good faith and clearly the players wanted to be there. The GMs responsible for those contracts also visualized the 5 being a deadly offensive core to build around as the cap continued to rise at roughly the same rate. Then Covid hit and put the screws to a lot of teams, cap-wise, to the extent that, even with a $4.5 mil rise for the past season, the Leafs are forking over a full 63% of their cap to their top 5, while one of the teams on the verge of winning the cup – Florida – sees 52% of their cap devoted to their top 5, one of whom is a goalie! – for a full 11% of the cap
What that does is allow Florida to spend $9,185,000 more than the Leafs on the other 18 contracts. Don’t think that doesn’t make a HUGE difference in the on-ice quality.
And they were signing contracts during Covid as well.
Now that it has been brought up by “insiders” it is difficult not to speculate whether something could be worked out with Utah that Tavares such that would accept being traded there.
Leafs could retain $2 million of Tavares’s cap hit for one year and Utah agree to extend him for 2 more years at $7million per year.
That is probably twice what Leafs could afford to extend Tavares for.
Utah could send Leaf Bujgstad in return to fill the empty 3rd line center slot.
It still leaves the Leafs looking for a 2nd line center for the year but opens up $9 million in cap space.
Those are some presumptions Allan! Maybe, just maybe, Utah sees a good young core on the rise, combined with a good collection of prospects in their system – ranked 7th by The Hockey Writers with special emphasis on Conor Geekie, Victor Söderstrom, Dmitri Simashev, Daniil But and Michael Hrabal which precludes bringing in a soon-to-be 34 y/o already showing signs of slowing down and paying him $7 mil off their cap.
Why would Utah even consider dealing for Tavares?