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The Maple Leafs know they haven’t really improved their roster
Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: After the first day of free agency Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said he wasn’t done with his roster.
(Day two of free agency they only signed defensemen Jordie Benn and Victor Mete)
Dubas said the trade market is “wide open” and he’ll be turning his attention to it.
The Leafs roster has not improved since last year and Dubas knows something else needs to happen.
They’ll look for some added forward depth (signed some blue line depth yesterday) but Dubas adds.
“They’re going to have to be guys who look at our situation and say ‘I can go there for a year or two on relatively low dollars and the group would be a fit for me to have success and parlay that into something greater.”
The Leafs are about $2 million under the salary cap and not including RFAs Rasmus Sandin and Pierre Engvall.
Alex Kerfoot, Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl are potential trade candidates.
The Blue Jackets have to move some forwards
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic: Even before the Columbus Blue Jacket signed Johnny Gaudreau they had too many forwards. They’ll now need to trade multiple forwards to help get under the salary cap.
If you project re-signing Patrik Laine at $8.5 million, the Blue Jackets will be $4 million over the salary cap ceiling.
Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekelainen isn’t worried.
“We thought about it long and hard,” Kekalainen said. “We’re confident we can make it all work. This doesn’t change our position on Laine at all. We’re going to approach (negotiations with Laine) like it’s a work in progress, but we have plans to keep ’em both.”
Could they look at moving Oliver Bjorkstrand or Gustav Nyquist?