The Maple Leafs may be sitting tight for 2026-27, but a familiar wave of former Toronto players is still waiting on the free-agent market as August rolls on and training camps draw closer.
At the top of that list is Michael Bunting, whose 2025-26 season didn’t help his stock much, but whose track record still makes him an interesting fit for a third-line role. The 30-year-old hasn’t matched the 23 goals and 63 points he put up in 2021-22, yet he remains a useful secondary scorer and one of the league’s better irritants. A massive payday is clearly off the table now, but it would be surprising if he’s unemployed for long.
Calle Jarnkrok is in a much tougher spot. His first year in Toronto was a strong one - 20 goals and a career-high 39 points - but injuries have wrecked his momentum since then.
Over the last three seasons, the 34-year-old has played just 127 games, and his 2025-26 line of six goals and eight points makes it fair to wonder whether his NHL run is nearing the end. Even so, his defensive reputation could still earn him a cheap short-term look.
Ryan Reaves is chasing a different kind of milestone. The 38-year-old enforcer played 50 games for the San Jose Sharks last season, scoring three goals and pushing his career total to 962 NHL games.
His value on the ice is limited to toughness, but he has kept landing jobs because teammates everywhere seem to appreciate what he brings off the ice. He’s still trying to get to 1,000.
On the blue line, John Klingberg has already pulled off a comeback after what looked like a dead end in Toronto. His 14-game stint with the Maple Leafs in 2023-24 was a disaster, but hip resurfacing surgery gave him another path, and he responded with 10 goals and 27 points in 56 games for the Sharks last season. He’s not the same player he was in Dallas, but there’s still enough offense there to matter.
Ben Hutton’s Maple Leafs cameo was so brief - four games in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season - that it’s easy to forget he was ever there. He’s spent the last five seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights in a depth role, and even though he was used sparingly in 2025-26, he still got into seven playoff games. The issue now is whether a 33-year-old seventh defenceman still has enough appeal to stick.
Matt Benning’s path has been shaped by injuries, too. Once viewed as a rising defender with the Oilers, he spent the past two seasons in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies and also got into one game with the Maple Leafs this past season. He may not be an everyday NHL option anymore, but his depth value remains, and his role in helping the Marlies win a Calder Cup championship only helps his case.
Kevin Gravel is the definition of a journeyman. He played three of his 139 NHL games with Toronto in 2019-20 and spent most of his career in the AHL, though he did appear in one game for the Nashville Predators in 2025-26. If he wants to keep playing, he should still find work somewhere, even if it’s mostly as organizational depth.
In goal, James Reimer at least proved he still had something left. The 38-year-old signed with the Ottawa Senators in January and went 7-4-2 with a 2.42 goals against average and a .886 save percentage in 14 games. Still, the market is thin, and it’s hard to see many openings that wouldn’t be better served by Connor Ingram or Cam Talbot.
Matt Murray’s season with the Seattle Kraken was short but productive when he was actually available. He began 2025-26 in a three-goalie setup with Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer, played only five games, and posted a 2.21 GAA with a .922 SV%. The numbers were strong, but the injury history keeps hanging over him.
Petr Mrazek’s case looks the bleakest of the bunch. His 20-game run with Toronto in 2021-22 was rough, and he hasn’t really recovered since.
He started 2023-24 with the Chicago Blackhawks, but the last two seasons have been rough, and injuries limited him to 10 games with the Anaheim Ducks this past year. His 4.07 GAA and .858 SV% do not point toward a rebound.
With August already here and camps about a month away, some of these players could wind up on two-way deals or head to Europe. Bunting looks like the best bet to land somewhere in the NHL. For the other nine, the clock is ticking fast.
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Winning the NHL Draft Lottery and taking Gavin McKenna first overall gave that transition a far brighter outline, especially with Easton Cowan and Matthew Knies also in the mix as possible pillars. Management keeps framing the shift as a retool rather than a rebuild, banking on a friendlier salary-cap setup and more experience already in the room, but the real question now is whether this next wave can give Toronto something the previous era never quite had. [Read more 🡒]