Dominic Moore Returns to Leafs on 1 Year, $1 Million Deal

The Maple Leafs have signed Dominic Moore to a one year, $1 million deal, as was reported earlier today.

Moore just finished a season where he had 25 points in 82 games with the Boston Bruins. The Bruins were the 10th team that Moore has played for in his well-traveled career, which also included two stints with the New York Rangers, and now the Maple Leafs.

From an analytics perspective, Moore was a 47.9% 5v5 CF% player, and a -7.5% CF% Rel on a very strong Boston team. However, he was leaned a bit more towards the defensive zone, with 40.2% of his shifts starting in the defensive zone.

Babcock will certainly like him down the middle, as he’s a career 53.3% in the faceoff dot, winning 54.59% this year.

As you can expect with someone who has played for 10 teams, Moore is far from an elite player, but he’s also far from a replacement level player either. Moore’s been a solid depth center for his career, with his best season coming in 2008-09 when he put up 45 points in 81 games with the Leafs and Sabres, 41 of them coming with the Leafs.

Moore is most likely going to step in for Boyle in the fourth line center role, and comparing the two of them, there isn’t a massive drop off between the two, with the exception of goal scoring. Considering that he comes $1.5 million cheaper, it’s an excellent depth signing for the Leafs, and worst case scenario, he doesn’t pan out and the leaves move on from the 36 year old (who will be 37 at the start of the season) in the summer.

I think the reason why this signing took so long to happen was due to the uncertainty with Joe Thornton. The Leafs seemed to be pressing hard for him, and I think once Thornton returned to San Jose, the Leafs then looked to Moore as a significantly cheaper backup plan.

All in all, a solid signing for the Leafs to shore up their center depth while not wasting too much cap space. He’s no Boyle or Thornton, but Moore certainly won’t hold the team down like Ben Smith would have.