Leafs sign Stephane Robidas

The Toronto Maple Leafs, looking for some experience, just signed 37-year-old defenceman Stephane Robidas for three years at $3 million per year.

The Leafs get a few things they want in Robidas. The get a defenceman. They get an older guy with experience (885 career NHL games). They get a right-handed shot on the back-end. Toronto went through the vast majority of last season with Cody Franson as the team’s only right-handed shot on defence. Now they have Franson, Roman Polak, and Stephane Robidas.

At $3 million per season, Robidas would have to be some kind of awful to be considered a boat anchor on the Leafs’ cap. Despite his age, Robidas’ possession stats have actually pretty decent. He’s not an offensive juggernaut but he can certainly put up some points (251 career).

He’s a 37-year-old who suffered two broken legs last season. Now, I’m not ready to give him the dreaded “injury prone” tag. I don’t think that’s fair. A guy with a bad back, wonky groin, or busted knees is injury prone. This poor guy broke bones which, as you can see from this video, takes quite a bit of torque.

Let’s assume Robidas comes back fully healthy, happy, and ready to play. He’s still signed to a 35+ contract. This means…

The Leafs got a lot of things that they got in one player, for fairly cheap, but with some risk. What do you think?