Leafs go after Landeskog, who remains far apart in contract talks with Avs

The contract talks between the Colorado Avalanche and captain Gabriel Landeskog are not going according to plans. And rival teams are setting up a plan on their own, which reportedly include the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, the Maple Leafs are looking at ways to make it possible to get Landeskog in Toronto. Which sounds crazy. 

It was reported more than once this week that the Avalanche and Landeskog or not even close to an extension. The position of the Avalanche has to change significantly or else Landeskog will go to market, and rival clubs are salivating with this idea. Colorado has $61.7 million in salary cap space used for the 2021-22 NHL season Landeskog, star goalie Philipp Grubauer and top winger Brandon Saad as unrestricted free agents along with young phenom defenseman Cale Makar, who becomes a restricted free agent to re-sign.

Pagnotta believes seeing that the Leafs will most likely lose Alex Kerfoot to the expansion draft, GM Kyle Dubas would want to get Landeskog on board. There are also talks about Zach Hyman testing the free agent market and not returning to Toronto, and the thought of filling in up front with Landeskog is sure enticing. 

However, that would be a crazy amount of money put up front if you add Landeskog there. A quick reminder of what it currently looks like in TO:

Auston Matthews : 11,64 millions $ cap hit
John Tavares : 11 millions $ cap hit
Mitch Marner : 10,9 millions $ cap hit 

You wanna add one more then, Kyle? 

The Avalanche captain recorded 20 goals, 32 assists for 52 points. This season, Landeskog made $6.5 million and signed a seven-year, $39 million deal in 2014. No one expected this re-signing to be this hard. Landeskog himself expressed his disappointment in having not already signed in Colorado. 

“I can’t help but be honest with you that I’m a little bit disappointed that it’s gotten this far and it’s had to come to this point,” Landeskog told Peter Baugh of The Athletic. 

“We’ll see what happens. I’m still hopeful that we can agree on something and come to terms, but if it was up to me, I would have liked it to be done eight months ago, 10 months ago.”

The Leafs need to focus their attention on the back end and their goaltending situation. It seems like while Landeskog is attractive to any team, Toronto wouldn’t be taking care of what truly needs to change to make them a true Stanley Cup contender. 

What do you think?