Monday FTB: Will next year be the year for the youths?

Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty ImagesOver the past few off-seasons, the Toronto Maple Leafs under Kyle Dubas have filled out the roster around the edges with older, cheaper vets. Jason Spezza, Joe Thornton, Wayne Simmonds, and Zach Bogosian most notably. Each one was signed for one-year deals, and none for more than $1.5 million (Simmonds). Two of them were signed (Spezza, Thornton) for the league minimum of $700,000. You can also count Jimmy Vesey, who isn’t exactly an aging vet, but was cheap depth signed for $900k. They’ve also dipped into the European free agency pool a few times. Ilya Mikheyev, Alexander Barabanov, and Mikko Lehtonen all signed for under $1 million in their first years.

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