The Toronto Maple Leafs’ biggest need is still at centre. But there’s a case to be made for adding more help on the wing too.
Enter, potentially, Brandon Saad.
Saad will have his contract with the St. Louis Blues terminated within the next 48 hours. Once he clears unconditional waivers at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, which is a formality, the mutual termination of Saad’s existing contract will leave him free to sign with any team he chooses.
Should the Leafs make a push to be that team and acquire the services of a player who won two Stanley Cups in his younger years with the Chicago Blackhawks?
It’s still so early in the process that it’s not clear yet how interested the Leafs are in Saad, if at all. However, there’s a strong argument to be made that they should be.
Saad is not having a good year to this point, which explains why the Blues were ready to cut ties now. It also explains why they were unable to find a trade partner while shopping him around the league this season and why he passed through regular waivers unclaimed on Wednesday afternoon.
The 32-year-old had only seven goals in the first 43 games and all of those goals came in the span of three games. In other words, Saad was goalless in 40 games. His ice time had slipped to as low as 8.5 minutes earlier this month. More tellingly, the Blues made him a healthy scratch five times.
The possible upside here: Saad is generating the same number of shots (and attempts) as in previous seasons, including from high-danger zones. What’s changed? His shooting percentage has plummeted from 18 percent last season, when he scored 26 goals, to just over nine percent this season.
Saad has always been an efficient shooter. In the two seasons before last, he scored 43 goals on 15 percent shooting.
Saad also has that playoff record, which includes 26 goals and 48 points in his last 78 outings.
All of which is to say, there’s the promise of offence from Saad for a team that could badly use more there in the depth department.
Heading into Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota Wild, the Leafs had gotten 115 of their 154 goals from six players. Just about everyone not named William Nylander, John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, Bobby McMann and Mitch Marner has struggled to score this season.
This for a team that’s historically struggled to score in the postseason.
Saad feels like an upgrade on what the Leafs do have on the wings in the middle six. He’s definitely a better fit to play for head coach Craig Berube than Nick Robertson and Max Domi, both of whom have struggled to produce this season, and maybe even Calle Järnkrok, who hasn’t played all year because of injury. He’s younger and more spry than Max Pacioretty, meanwhile, who’s been in and out of the lineup with injuries (and also healthy scratched the odd night).
Berube could slot Saad in on the third line with a centre to be acquired ahead of the March 7 trade deadline. There’s even the potential to move him up a little higher if circumstances require it.
Knies — Matthews — Marner
McMann — Tavares — Nylander
Saad — Acquired centre — Domi/Pacioretty
Lorentz — Kämpf — Järnkrok
Saad could also slip into a depth penalty-killing role and find a spot on the Leafs’ second power-play unit.
He played for Berube for two-plus seasons in St. Louis. His familiarity with the first-year Leafs coach feels like a selling point, especially given the so-so fit of others like Robertson and Domi under Berube’s watch.
The Leafs might hope that the chance to contend for another Cup would spark Saad in the midst of a down year. A resurgence in Toronto, meanwhile, might help Saad earn a nice payday in free agency later this summer. Plenty of other would-be free agents received the “Toronto bump” in recent years — parlaying a stint with the team into more money somewhere else.
The biggest selling point of all, though, is the acquisition cost: Free. Though the Leafs would have to get rid of a body, Saad wouldn’t cost this team anything more than the prorated sum of money he’d be paid on a contract for the remainder of the season. He would simply add more depth — scoring depth especially — on the wing for a team that needs it.
And the mere fact he’s available to be signed at all suggests that the veteran is still hungry to prove himself.
The Blues had intended to assign Saad to AHL Springfield once he cleared waivers on Wednesday, but the player wanted no part of returning to that league for the first time since January 2013. Instead, he chose to walk away from the $5.4 million that was owed to him through the end of next season by agreeing to a contract termination now.
He should have options. A number of teams beyond the Leafs are in the market for help in front, including Edmonton, Dallas, Washington and Vegas, among others.
(Photo: Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images)
