Dave Bolland adds stress to Toronto Maple Leafs’ offseason

The off season is continuing to be an interesting time for the Toronto Maple Leafs as unrestricted free agent Dave Bolland has stated his desire to stay in Toronto.

The Toronto-born forward recently said in an interview with the Fan 590 that he hopes to stay with the blue and white until the end of his career.

As much as fans and the organization may want Bolland to stick around, it’s been suggested that the player is looking for a deal that the Leafs are very hesitant in handing out. The lack-luster output from free agent signing in David Clarkson has made the Leafs wary of making another large gamble and unsure if that’s a pill they want to swallow.

It is no secret that the Leafs organization have been drooling over the idea of holding onto Bolland and president Brendan Shanahan has only added to that notion by saying he’s “the type of player we need.” Keeping Bolland may come at a serious price especially if he really intends to push for a career closing deal.

However, the cap situation for the Leafs could jump up and down. Rumours of Dion Phaneuf, Jake Gardiner and Nazem Kadri on the way out could open up space to spend. But having already committed to Clarkson and needing to make decisions on players like Mason Raymond, James Reimer and Nikolai Kulemin, who could all have potential upsides, only makes things more complicated.

Core players such as Kessel, Van Riemsdyk, Bozak and Lupul also make potential trades an issue as they combine for a whopping $21 million dollar cap hit, according to CapGeek. The Leafs can only hope these expensive players continue to live up to their deals because there are very few teams who would want to pick these guys up for that much.

Lets say any possible trades too arise with some of these highly paid players, there’s no doubt that the Leafs will be forced to retain salary and limit how much they can actually spend on an incoming player.

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Jesse Espana

I have been a Leaf fan since I was quite young, living in the Toronto area and all, but have seriously picked up hockey of the past few years. I will stand by my teams through the ups and downs, life in Leafs Nation can be gruelling. I'm big into music and overall I can be a pretty realistic and sarcastic person. Enjoy!

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