The Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking to round out their roster next season with solid players on affordable contracts. Then again, so is the rest of the NHL.
But there could be one player whom the Maple Leafs could target, amid an impending cap crunch in Colorado.
That player is forward Ross Colton.
The Colorado Avalanche are on track to face an impending cap crunch yet again. The Presidents’ Trophy winners have several UFAs and less than $3 million in cap space. As such, someone has to go.
And one of the cap casualties in Colorado could be Colton. The 29-year-old will be entering the final year of a four-year contract. That final year comes with a $4 million cap hit. That’s something certainly affordable for a versatile forward who can play center and the wing.
Considering that the Maple Leafs will need depth in the forward core, bringing in Colton will be a good idea.
The Leafs could certainly fit Colton’s cap hit into their salary cap structure, while keeping some space available for other signings and additions across the board.
How Colton Fits into Maple Leafs Lineup
The Maple Leafs haven’t really had a versatile forward since the days of Alexander Kerfoot. Kerfoot, now with the Utah Mammoth, was Sheldon Keefe’s Swiss Army knife. Kerfoot could play center, wing, kill penalties, take up power play minutes, and move up and down the lineup as needed.
That’s what Colton offers the Leafs. Colton could earn a top-six wing spot, while potentially taking up the third-line center role if needed. Assuming the Maple Leafs roll with Auston Matthews as the 1C and John Tavares as the 2C, Colton could step in as the 3C.
But if the Maple Leafs wanted to go with a different look, why not try Colton as the 2C with Tavares on the wing? Colton would even allow the Leafs to drop Tavares to the 3C role.
That’s the type of versatility that the veteran forward could offer Toronto. The question then would be: What would it cost to acquire Colton?
What to read next:
The Acquisition Cost of Ross Colton
Here’s where things could get tricky. Should the Avalanche decide to move Colton, it would be as a cap dump. As such, the organization wouldn’t be looking to get roster players back. And if they did, it wouldn’t be anyone with a significant cap hit.
If anything, the Avalanche might be comfortable taking back someone with a cap hit closer to league minimum. But what would likely get the deal done would be draft picks. Colorado, of course, wouldn’t be expecting to get its first-round pick back from the Maple Leafs.
But what if the Leafs could score Colton for a couple of picks? What if it took something like a third and fifth-round pick to make the deal work?
That’s something that John Chayka would seriously have to think about. While there might be other teams willing to overpay, it’s worth pointing out that Colton has a 12-team no-trade list. So, that situation could provide some deterrence to Colorado’s trade efforts.
Ultimately, if this deal could land on Chayka’s lap, the Maple Leafs would be remiss if they didn’t do their due diligence.
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