Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens have interest in the pending UFA winger once the market opens Friday.
Leafs GM Kyle Dubas shared this with local Toronto media on Monday during a pre-draft call:
“We would like to be incredibly hard to play against and some of that does have to happen organically,” he said. “But also there’s no doubt that it is something that we would like to address through free agency or through trades that come up. It is a priority of ours.”
As colleague James Mirtle wrote Monday, Dubas did try to bring back rugged winger Kyle Clifford, but he’s headed to free agency.
“Yes, they did (make an offer),’’ Clifford’s agent Todd Reynolds said Tuesday morning. “But we decided to go to market. And the Leafs were well aware of that.’’
Hearing that the Maple Leafs have genuine interest in pending UFA winger Wayne Simmonds at the right price. They have him listed as a target once free agency opens Friday. Again, would need to be a reasonable contract for it to work. But Leafs have sincere interest there.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 6, 2020
Which doesn’t mean, as Reynolds pointed out, that the Leafs and Clifford can’t re-visit each other after the market opens, which may be the case.
In the meantime, the Leafs, according to sources, have prioritized Simmonds as a target. Given their cap situation, I assume he would have to come in at less than $2 million per year. Especially if they’re going after Alex Pietrangelo or any other blue line options. The Simmonds fit would need to be economical.
Simmonds is coming off a contract that paid him $5 million, but I think his camp understands between the new pandemic NHL market and a couple of tough years, Simmonds will be making less in his next deal. The door is not totally closed on a return to Buffalo, by the way, but a Sabres source said Simmonds was likely headed to market.
The fit with the Leafs checks off a number of boxes for them. Simmonds is physical, hard to play against, possesses character and leadership, still has some hands, and is a hometown guy to boot. It’s got a lot of Jason Spezza feel to it, but he’s a different type of player.
Takeaways from Wayne Simmonds interview last month.
• It’s the best he’s felt physically in two years.
• And that he wouldn’t shy away from playing in Toronto if the Leafs made a serious push for him. Not every Toronto kid has the mental makeup to play at home.
“I moved up to Aurora (north of Toronto) probably three summers ago, my wife and I and our daughter,’’ Simmonds said. “I’ve been walking around the neighbourhood way more frequently than I usually do because I’ve been here a lot longer than normal and all I keep hearing is, ‘When are you going to sign with the Leafs?’
“So of course it’s crossed my mind. I know they’re in a bit of a salary cap situation and things of that nature, but you know, I’m open to everything. Toronto’s got a great core of players and I think that’s definitely a team where I could go in and make an impact right away. It’s up to the teams. Whoever wants to choose me, I’ll be waiting. I’ll definitely be ready to go.’’