The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t going to be quiet this summer. A new Director of Player Personnel might not match the energy of the previous weeks, but it is a sign that work is being done.

Here are a few Leafs thoughts that fit with the middle of the summer hockey dead zone.

I’ll start by saying I’m not advocating for this. There is a high probability that Steve Yzerman is happy to stay with the organization he spent his playing career with. There is a high probability that the Maple Leafs want it to be the John Chayka and Mats Sundin show, with the door still open for Keith Pelley’s tinkering.

Nevertheless, there is something that feels very MLSE-like about bringing in Steve Yzerman. He fits the high profile marquee name MLSE often seeks out. He’s lifted the Stanley Cup as a player and an executive. The Rogers shareholders will love that. The Yzerplan seems like the logical progression from the Shanaplan. The final form likely being the Lidstromplan or Lidplan, if I’m doing this more consistently.

Yzerman’s success in Tampa makes him enticing. The results in Detroit are the cold water. Yzerman built a strong hockey operations department once, but he couldn’t repeat it. The Maple Leafs have also built out their group already and won’t be looking to move on until they’ve given them a fair shake. There might not even be work for a President of Hockey Operations, other than sitting in the big office and talking about vision. Keith Pelley might not be ready to give up the visionary aspect.

There’s also that Yzerman will be expensive, and Rogers just spent a mint buying up the remaining MLSE shares (do we even call it MLSE anymore, or is it just Rogers?) Why take on an unnecessary expense?

Everything points to Steve Yzerman not making sense in Toronto, but I can’t shake the idea this will happen at some point.

What seems likely is that you can ignore this thought this summer but do your best to remember it for next summer. If the Maple Leafs once again underwhelm in the regular season or exit in the first round, Steve Yzerman’s name will come up.

Dakota Joshua has a $3.25M AAV cap hit. Steven Lorentz has a $1.35 million AAV. One of them will be sitting in the press box on any given night depending on who clicks better with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime.

It’s an expensive fourth line, and it really begs the question of why Blueger and Duhaime needed to be added in the first place, but I digress. They are here now and will be played. That leaves one spot.

Dakota Joshua’s history with Blueger gives him the inside track. The idea that Joshua could somehow put up 15 goals again is the dream. He did that with Blueger, and they’ll be even more sheltered in Toronto than in Vancouver.

In contrast, Steven Lorentz has been the better player. No one complains about Lorentz being in the Leafs lineup. He’s versatile enough if you don’t raise your expectations beyond twelve minutes of ice time. He’s a bargain compared to Dakota Joshua, but the appeal of gaining $500k of cap space by using similar players like Jacob Quillan or Bo Groulx should factor into this conversation as well.

Replacing both Joshua and Lorentz would free up almost $3M in cap space, but no one is going to take Joshua off the Leafs’ hands without a similar contract coming back.

Joshua not going anywhere might earn him his spot by default. Lorentz looking useful at a reasonable price tag should make him the odd man out. And with the Maple Leafs sitting at 49 of their 50 contract spaces, freeing one up by jettisoning Lorentz makes sense.

Early this summer, I opined about Cole Perfetti being an interesting target for an offer sheet from the Maple Leafs. He seemed like a prime candidate for an offer sheet. The idea of taking a $4M flyer on a 24-year-old player who had 32 points last season seemed like it could be a savvy gamble.

That 32-point player was just re-signed at $6M AAV for the next five years. This looks like lunacy.

This is also the by-product of the salary cap going up. And I admit not understanding who is worth what anymore. I don’t think anyone knows, and avoiding long-term mistakes is the name of the game.

Credit where credit is due. John Chayka’s avoidance of internal free agents in the summer of 2027 is a shrewd gamble. The trade deadline might change things, but he’s positioned to not have to deal with the continuation or over-correction that results from this offseason. He’ll be in a position to respond, and all his trade assets will have term on them with three salary retention spaces remaining. As it sits today, they know the minimum number they’ll have for 2027 offseason upgrades, and that’s potentially a win as well.

If the Leafs improve this season, they are in the position to upgrade. If things don’t work in 2026-27, they are selling from a position of strength.

While the salary cap is looking like chaos, the Leafs have security.

As for the Cole Perfetti contract, I’m going to do my best to remember it before I ever think to suggest the idea of an offer sheet again.

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