The Toronto Maple Leafs have added another center to the mix, agreeing to a two-year contract with Teddy Blueger worth $2.5 million per season.
It’s a straightforward move, and Blueger fits that description too. He’s the kind of player who handles the unglamorous work: defensive-zone faceoffs, penalty-kill shifts, tough matchups, the stuff that helps a coach sleep a little easier at night.
He’s about to turn 32, has played more than 450 NHL games, and has never put up a double-digit goal season or cracked 28 points. He’s a career 50 percent faceoff man and finished below that mark last season, which isn’t exactly ideal for a checking center.
That said, Toronto didn’t pay a premium to find out what it has. Blueger’s deal comes in below the AFP salary projection of $2.7 million AAV over three years, so in cap terms the Leafs got him at a lower number than expected. For a player whose value is tied almost entirely to role and reliability, that matters.
Blueger has shown he can fit into a useful third-line environment, too. In Vancouver a few seasons ago, he spent most of his time with Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland on a Canucks line that worked very well during their Pacific Division-winning season.
In more than 400 five-on-five minutes with Joshua, that duo was on the ice for a 23-11 edge in goals. Garland, of course, was the main engine there, but Blueger was part of a unit that tilted the ice in a real way.
The Leafs now have a few different ways to build out the bottom of the lineup, and that’s where this signing gets interesting. Blueger could end up next to Cody Sissons on a pricey fourth line, which would open the door for Jacob Quillan to try handling a more offense-driven third-line center role, or even Bo Groulx.
Or Toronto could simply use Sissons and Blueger as the third- and fourth-line centers. The contracts leave room for either approach.
What they don’t do, at least on their own, is solve everything. Short of Quillan emerging as a real contributor, this probably isn’t enough if the Leafs are aiming to become a true contender.
Still, the move should help them tighten things up defensively and take some pressure off Auston Matthews, who has been stuck with some of the toughest minutes in the league over the past two seasons. If Toronto has really given him a cleaner path to focus on offense, that has to show up in a big way. Matthews, simply put, was not good enough last season.
The bottom six now has a mix of Blueger, Sissons, Joshua, and Lorentz, with Quillan possibly in the picture as well. There’s not much scoring there. Even if Easton Cowan gets pushed into the lineup after the Jack Roslovic signing, that would still ask a lot of him to play with a group that doesn’t offer much offensively.
Toronto has added some legitimate checking pieces, and that should make the team better on the defensive side overall. The Leafs finished second-last in the league in goals against per game last season, so any improvement there matters. Between the two checking centers, a new starting goalie, two new defensemen, and Roslovic as the one offensive addition, the roster is definitely sturdier.
But sturdier isn’t the same as finished. The Leafs still need more punch, ideally another quality third-line center, if they want the roster to feel truly complete.
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The Maple Leafs still have the same offseason problem that has followed them for a while now: they want a real upgrade on the blue line, but the path to get there is not especially simple. The market keeps pointing them toward bigger-name defense help, and the conversation is being framed by a front office that wants to stay aggressive without losing sight of the long-term picture.
Adam Boqvist has also entered the discussion as a possible low-risk depth play if he remains unsigned, with a professional tryout at training camp on the table. For Toronto, that kind of move would not solve the whole issue on its own, but it fits the broader approach of trying to strengthen the back end wherever possible while the bigger questions around a major trade continue to hang over the summer. [Read more 🡒]
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Toronto could use that profile, and the connection is obvious enough to make the fit worth revisiting. Marchment is a pending unrestricted free agent, and the question is whether the Maple Leafs are willing to pay the price and make the commitment it would take to bring back a player they once moved on from, only to watch him become the kind of useful, well-rounded winger they still seek. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Suddenly In Direct Fight With Leafs For Coveted Free Agent
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For the Maple Leafs, the appeal is obvious if they want a steadier layer of depth behind their top scorers and a player who has shown he can still contribute. Montreal is in the mix too, which turns the chase into a little more than simple free-agent shopping, and it adds another wrinkle to a market where Toronto may have to move quickly if it wants to land him. [Read more 🡒]