News on what it will cost the Leafs to move Petr Mrazek
Petr Mrazek was brought in to help provide some stability in the crease and give Jack Campbell a worthy partner to split starts throughout the regular season and potentially the playoffs.
It was a move that made total sense in theory but backfired in reality. Coming off two straight seasons with starting 40 games for the Hurricanes, he was expected to continue that role in the 2020-2021 season. Due to an unfortunate neck injury against the Maple Leafs, significant time was missed and it left Mrazek with just 12 starts. In his 12 starts, he was putting up fantastic numbers, holding a 0.923 save percentage, while allowing just 2.06 goals per game.
His .923 save percentage ranked #8 in the NHL for goalies who played 10 or more games that season, and had he not been injured, could have cracked the top five goalies in save percentage.
This led Maple Leafs' GM Kyle Dubas to sign Mrazek to a 3 year $11,400,000 contract the following summer. This works out to a $3,800,000 cap hit per season. Mrazek couldn't stay healthy this past season. He started in just 18 of his games. with a record of 12-6, while holding a save percentage of 0.888 and averaging 3.34 goals allowed per game.
Per, The Athletic the Toronto Maple Leafs may have to package a roster player or a prospect like Nick Abruzzese in any trade that involves Petr Mrazek if they want to lose his contract. Mrazek has a 10 team no trade list so he will have some say in the matter.
This would be a tough pill to swallow to lose a home grown drafted prospect like Abruzzese but might be a necessity to get Mrazek's contract off the books.
Another option would be to buy out the final two years. The two years left on his $3.8 million AAV contract would turn into cap hits over the next four seasons of $1,033,333, $833,333, $1,433,333 and $1,433,333 (via CapFriendly).
I think the most likely scenario is that the Toronto Maple Leafs trade Petr Mrázek to another team to avoid the cap hit entirely much like they did with Patrick Marleau back in 2019. When the Toronto Maple Leafs traded Patrick Marleau and his $6.25 million salary to the Carolina Hurricanes, they had to give up a first round pick to do it. I'm hoping Petr Mrázek's price tag is a little lower.
| POLL | ||
How will the Leafs get rid of Peter Mrazek? | ||
| Trade while losing a prospect or pick | 73 | 34.6 % |
| Buy Out | 88 | 41.7 % |
| Forced to play him to rebuild trade value | 50 | 23.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
