Leafs Re-Sign Troy Bodie

It looks like today was the day of the bottom six. After signing Petri Kontiola and Mike Santorelli in the afternoon, the Toronto Maple Leafs have brought back fourth line winger Troy Bodie, agreeing on a one-year contract with the Portage La Prairie native.

Pretty good. If the Leafs want to be successful this year, they’re going to have to find a way to leave the fisticuffs to guys who can play hockey. One of their biggest faults last year was the fact that they occasionally decided that Colton Orr and Fraser McLaren had to take up two winger spots at the same time, which lead to teams eating apart a fourth line that was barely usable.

Troy Bodie, on the other hand, can play serviceable hockey. His possession game, while bad, was bad because of the team he played for; he was slightly above the team average (+0.5). He produced a decent amount when he was on the ice; his 1.49 points per 60 minutes (5 on 5) was higher than both of Team Mimico (Bolland 1.33, Clarkson 0.66), Peter Holland, and Nikolai Kulemin, just to name a few. He stood up for his teammates, dropping the gloves four times. He’s imposing at 6’5. How do you say no to that if you’re hell bent on having a puncher?

The cap hit isn’t out there yet, but I have to imagine it’s at no more than $925,000 (the most you can remove by sending a player down). One thing’s for sure though; the Leafs added three solid bottom six forwards today, possibly an entire line, and likely did so for less than $4 million. Considering they almost paid $5 million for a third line centre a few days ago, this is a pretty good scenario.