Leafs acquire Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot from Avalanche

What has already been a busy opening to free agency for the Toronto Maple Leafs, it becomes even bigger, acquiring right-handed defenceman Tyson Barrie and centre Alex Kerfoot from the Colorado Avalanche for Nazem Kadri and defenceman Calle Rosen.

In this trade, the Leafs have improved their blueline and especially on the right side. As the whole hockey world noticed, the Leafs were in desperate need of a right-handed defenceman, and now they have one in Tyson Barrie.

Barrie is just coming off a season where he set his career-high in points with 59 in 78 games. The Avalanche will be retaining $2.75-million of the final year of Barrie’s contract.

Coming to Toronto with Barrie will be forward Alex Kerfoot, who has played both centre and wing in the NHL with Colorado. Kerfoot, 24, just finished his second NHL season and was able to put up big numbers while just playing in a depth role on the Avalanche. He has over 40 points in both of his seasons, while only averaging 14:09 TOI.

Heading to Colorado will be one of the longest-tenured and most-beloved Leafs, Nazem Kadri. The centreman has been through it all with Toronto, playing on tank teams and being a major factor why the Leafs are where they are as a franchise.

The other player heading to Colorado is 25-year-old defenceman Calle Rosen. Signed as a European free agent two years ago and recently signed to a two-year, $1.5-million contract. He was slotted to make the Leafs’ blueline out of training camp with the departure of Jake Gardiner.

It’s a significant price, but changes were needed and Dubas addressed those changes.

After this trade, the Leafs have just under $8-million in cap space, but Kerfoot is currently in need of a contract and expectation is that he will be heading into arbitration. With Horton heading to LTIR, that number increases to $13.3-million in cap space with Kerfoot and Marner needing contracts.