The Toronto Maple Leafs will need to continue to find value in the bottom-six in order to be successful next season.
Ever since Kyle Dubas took over as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, value contracts have been very important to his philosophy. High-end skill can be rewarded financially, but the bottom-tier of the roster is where you find the value.
For example, whether it was Michael Bunting, Ilya Mikheyev, Ondrej Kase, Jason Spezza or David Kampf last season, all four of those players were paid far less than what they were worth.
It’s a hard philosophy to live by, because you have to get extremely lucky and need to find diamonds in the rough.