Maple Leafs Cleared of Tampering, and Keys to the Offseason for the Bruins and Lightning

The league looks into tampering concerns by the Toronto Maple Leafs and GM John Chayka

Frank Seravalli of hockey247: Multiple sources have said that at least one team raised tampering concerns with the NHL about the Toronto Maple Leafs, leading up to Sunday’s announcement naming John Chayka as team GM. There was concern a teams employees were being contacted without permission as Chayka looks to fill out his staff.

The NHL informed Maple Leafs CEO and president Keith Pelley that they were investigating, and then let him know after their investigation that they were satisfied with their findings.

Sources also say that prominent candidate in their search was offered a significant advisory with the Maple Leafs, but turned it down as he didn’t want to work with Chayka.

There was weekend speculation that the Chayka is interested in bringing LA Kings senior director of hockey operations, and former Coyotes employee Jake Goldberg to the Maple Leafs. Utah Mammoth’s manager of salary cap and hockey strategy Chase Glasberg, is another name that was speculated on the weekend. Chase is the son of Neal Glasberg, whose agency conducted the executive search for the Leafs.

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Keys to the offseason for the Boston Bruins

Ryan S. Clarke and Kristen Shilton of ESPN: Looking at the keys to the offseason for the Boston Bruins.

Projected cap space: $16.4 million
2026 draft picks: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th (DET), 4th (TB), 7th

The Bruins have RFA forward Lukas Reichel and UFA forward Viktor Arvidsson to decide whether to re-sign or not. Arvidsson was one of four Bruins to score 25 goals or more. They’ll need to find some bottom-six players to help out with some offense, and not just bring energy.

Bruins GM Don Sweeney will also have to be thinking longer-term as Casey Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha and Sean Kuraly are entering the final years of their contracts.

One pending unrestricted free agent that they should consider is Mason Marchment, who bring a physical game and can score 20 goals.

Keys to the offseason for the Tampa Bay Lightning

Ryan S. Clarke and Kristen Shilton of ESPN: Looking at the keys to the offseason for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Projected cap space: $13.6 million
2026 draft picks: 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 5th (SEA), 6th, 7th

Pending UFA defenseman Darren Raddysh will be the Lightning’s biggest decision, as he’s coming off a 22-goal, 70 point season in 73 games.

They Lighting are starting to get up there in age, with defenseman Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh over 35, and Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel and Andrei Vasilevskiy are in their early 30s.

The Lightning don’t really have any big holes. They’ve played a lot of hockey over the last decade, and did it catch up to them a bit this year? Do they need to find some life to bring into the mix? Do they look at bringing in a potential UFA like Charlie Coyle or Alex Tuch?