Leafs 2010 Offseason: Potential Restricted Free Agent Targets

The Leafs start out the 2010 NHL offseason, with high hopes, cap room, high value trade chips and no first round draft pick. They are a team in need of top six forwards and draft picks, but Brian Burke has chosen a different route to building his team for the time being.

He's went international and brought over goaltender Jussi Rynnas from Finland over, much like Jonas Gustavsson last season. He's also signed Hobie Baker nominee goaltender Ben Scrivens to help strengthen the Leafs goaltender situation. With these moves made, it could spell the end of goaltender prospect James Reimer in a  Leafs jersey, but time will only tell if he returns to the fold.

The Leafs as a result of the Phil Kessel deal will have no picks in the first round in this years  NHL Entry Draft held in Los Angeles. Also, with a less than stellar crop of unrestricted free agents available, it sort of leaves Burke's hands tied at the moment. Not that the crop is terrible, but there is just a limited supply of quality talent available.

Potential Targets could include Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrick Marleau, Matt Lombardi and Anton Volchenkov, but the odds of them signing any of them are slim to none.

What I propose is to go about trying to sign potential RFA's to offer sheets. Target players who command a good pay raise and hopefully their parent team cannot afford them now, much like they did with Kessel. Finally try and work out a Sign and Trade with the club; with hopes of not trading 2012 and 2013 first round picks.

Here's my targets, tell me what you think

POS # Player Age Cap Hit 09/10 Salary Status Team

LW/RW 9 Ryan, Bobby 22 1.922  0.765  RFA ANA

Bobby Ryan is in line for a pay hike that may be too much for Anaheim to afford. With Players like Hiller, Getzlaf, Perry, Vishnovsky and Lupul all making over 4 million, add  Jason Blake's cap hit along with the possibility of Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne coming back, there really could be limited funds available for the Ducks. This isn't even including resigning RFA D James Wisniewski.

POS # Player Age Cap Hit 09/10 Salary Status Team

LW 16 Ladd, Andrew 24 1.550 1.650 RFA CHI

**This guy may be in line for a small pay increase, but it's significan't because I don't believe the Hawks could afford him if he was to make over 1.5 million a year with their cap situation. Ladd offers the Leafs a big body who will stand in front of the net, play on the PK and is of course reliable defensively. He will come at a small price, but a price I'd be willing to pay.

POS # Player Age Cap Hit 09/10 Salary Status Team

D 27 Quincey, Kyle 23 0.525 .550 RFA COL

**Following an outstanding 2010 season, Quincey was arguably Colorado's best defenseman and also their best bang for their buck player. Making half a million dollars last year, Quincey saw his stock significantly rise as a result of his stellar play. Colorado does have cap space coming into the 2011 season, but they have many Free Agents to sign to deals such as Chris Stewart, Peter Mueller, Brett Clark, Ruslan Salei, TJ Hensick, Kevin Porter and Brandon Yip, just to name a few. One player may fall through the cracks, and I think Quincey could be had at the right price.

POS # Player Age Cap Hit 09/10 Salary Status Team

LW 18 Neal, James 21 0.800 .720 RFA DAL

**One of the more intriguing options for the Leafs. Dallas has many high priced talent already on the books for 2011 such as Brendan Morrow, Brad Richards and Mike Ribiero. Couple that with pay increases to the likes of Steve Ott, Loui Eriksson, Stephane Robidas and Kari Lehtonen, Neal's price may be limited for the Stars and a team with more cap space could scoop him up, like the Leafs. They still have RFA's like Niskanen and Grossman to resign as well as signing a backup goalie, so funds could be limited for them.

POS # Player Age Cap Hit 09/10 Salary Status Team

C 40 Lapierre, Maxim 24 0.663 .800 RFA MTL

**If they resign Tomas Plekanec along with resigning a few of their RFA Goalies who are in line for a raise, Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price, along with players like Glen Metropolit, Benoit Pouliot and Mathieu Darche; a player like Lapierre could find more money elsewhere. He'd be welcomed in Toronto. His tenacity and work ethic would be a great addition to the bottom 2 lines on Toronto.

POS # Player Age Cap Hit 09/10 Salary Status Team

RW 23 Clarkson, David 25 .838 .875 RFA NJ

**Another Brian Burke type player. Brings everything you want to the team. Could command a 2-3 million dollar contract, which could be a bit too much for the Devils to handle with the re signings of Paul Martin, Mike Mottau and possibly even Ilya Kovalchuk to come. I doubt Ilya resigns, but I'm still leaving that option open.

POS # Player Age Cap Hit 09/10 Salary Status Team

C 8 Pavelski, Joe 1.637 1.725 RFA SJ

**A long shot because in my opinion I think the Sharks will offer him and Setoguchi long term deals and cut their losses with Patrick Marleau, but one can hope a little if you're a Leaf fan

There are obviously plenty more options at this time, but really these guys I see as guys who fit the Brian Burke philosophy but also can be had if the right offer is made. Obviously other guys such as Erik Johnson, Devin Setoguchi, Braydon Coburn and plenty of others are there for an offer sheet, I just believe these guys have what it takes to play in Toronto, but also offer a good possibility of signing them long term.