After several weeks of conversations between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Jake McCabe, it appears the two parties are close to an extension. According to James Mirtle of The Athletic, McCabe and the Leafs have been working at a deal for some time now. He believes McCabe is closest to signing a new contract first between all of Toronto’s pending free agents. Others who are pending include UFAs Mitch Marner, John Tavares and RFA Matthew Knies.
Leafs and McCabe Close to Signing Extension
McCabe is currently playing out the final year of his contract. His current contract was signed by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021 in free agency. It’s a four-year deal at $4M AAV. However, when the Maple Leafs acquired him in a trade, Chicago retained half of his salary. Therefore, Toronto is only paying him $2M against the salary cap, which is an absolute steal for the Maple Leafs.
He plays on the second pair with Oliver Ekman-Larsson as his partner, and they’ve been a great duo since the season started. They lead the Leafs’ defence in scoring. Ekman-Larsson is at the top with four assists, but McCabe is right behind him with three in seven games. It’s even more impressive when Ekman-Larsson is on the first power-play unit while McCabe doesn’t feature with the extra man. Although this is the second pairing, they’ve been utilized as if they were the top pairing on the team. Head coach Craig Berube appears to be a big fan of the two as they’ve been given lots of ice time. While it’s still early in the season, McCabe averages about 21 minutes of ice time per game. That’s the most he’s ever averaged in the eight full seasons of his career.
Why Give an Extension Now?
Signing a player to an extension in the middle of the season isn’t unheard of. However, it’s certainly not as common as negotiating a contract before the hockey starts or ends. It can be distracting to some players and Toronto media are all over it in post-game and pre-game pressers. Despite all those possibilities, McCabe seems even-keeled while playing his best hockey. Sometimes, teams like to sign players mid-season in an attempt to save money. Between now and the end of the season, McCabe’s value may increase, forcing the Leafs’ management to pay him more than what the ask would be now.
There are more reasons to sign McCabe now rather than wait. Typically, UFAs have more leverage in negotiations. This is because, once July 1 hits and they’re still unsigned, they can negotiate with any team in the NHL. Therefore, the team loses the exclusivity in talking with the player. And it seems that general manager Brad Treliving thinks highly of the player, much like Berube. So, there’s one reason why Treliving might want to jump the gun on this deal.
What Could McCabe’s Contract Look Like?
Toronto doesn’t want to risk losing McCabe. It’s a struggle finding solid top-four defencemen in free agency. And when there’s a rare instance of that, they’re usually pretty expensive. Also, there is no guarantee that the Leafs can find someone with a similar style to McCabe. The top defencemen who are pending free agents include Shea Theodore, Jakob Chychrun, and Aaron Ekblad. Those are great players, however, on the open market, they’ll be asking for north of $7M per year. Approaching McCabe now would give the Leafs a good chance at keeping the AAV around $4.5M to $5.5M.
The term for a McCabe extension could go two ways. Traditionally, a player like McCabe would get around three years at the age of 31. However, Treliving has been creative with contracts in the past, like with Chris Tanev this past summer. Toronto signed Tanev to a six-year deal, which will expire when he turns 40 years old. The reason this was done was to keep the AAV down. Maybe this is something that’s looked at with McCabe, who is three years younger than Tanev.
Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
