The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed center Pontus Holmberg to a two-year contract with an $800K cap hit.
Holmberg, 24, was going to be a restricted free agent on July 1 with the conclusion of his entry-level deal. His new contract is actually a slight decrease in pay, going from $827,500 to a flat $800,000, but also falls just above his qualifying offer of $787,500. He was eligible for arbitration this offseason, so making this signing done now allows them to avoid that scenario.
Holmberg made his NHL debut this season and got into 37 games with the Maple Leafs, with 5 goals, 8 assists, and 13 points while seamlessly sliding into a bottom-six center role, although he was pushed out of the lineup later in the season when they made some veteran additions like Ryan O’Reilly, Noel Acciari, and Sam Lafferty at the trade deadline.
He also played 38 games in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies, where he had 10 goals, 12 assists, and 22 points, and also had six goals, two assists, and eight points in seven playoff games as they were swept in three games in the third round of the playoffs.
Holmberg was the first pick of the sixth round pick of the 2018 NHL Draft, going 156th overall for the Maple Leafs. He currently has the second-most points out of players selected in the sixth and seventh round of that draft, with San Jose Sharks winger John Leonard currently having three more points in 27 more games.
Holmberg was the Maple Leafs second signing on Wednesday, also locking up center David Kampf to a four-year contract with a $2.4M cap hit. The two are Brad Treliving’s first signings as general manager of the Maple Leafs, a position he assumed at the end of May after Kyle Dubas was surprisingly let go.
The Leafs still have nine more unrestricted free agents and one restricted free agent on their roster to sign, with only a bit under $6M in salary cap space to work with, although that also includes defenseman Jake Muzzin’s $5.625M cap hit, who will most likely be placed on LTIR next season.
The Maple Leafs will look to continue to push for their first Stanley Cup win since 1967, and build on a slightly more successful season by their standards after winning their first playoff series since 2004 before losing to the Florida Panthers in five games in the second round.
They still had another dominant regular season, finishing second in the Atlantic Division and fourth in the NHL with a 50-21-11 record.
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