The NHL season is a month away, Chris Johnston has a new job at the Star, and he got it going with a piece on Morgan Rielly.
That’s a very good question he poses, and he answers it with some discussion of the kinds of contracts other top defenders have gotten, and he touches on the tight cap space all teams are facing. He suggests that the Leafs have shown a willingness with Zach Hyman and Frederik Andersen to treat expiring UFAs as “own rentals” while letting them play out their contracts.
But what he doesn’t get into, and what most people like to leave out of the conversation when they talk about this question of retain or extend is this: If you let them go, then what?