NHL Rumors: 3 Free Agents Linked to Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs don't have a ton of cap space to work with this summer, however there is interest to add a few players on affordable contracts. The team has some own internal business to complete with the extensions for Pierre Engvall and Rasmus Sandin, and look for Toronto to be involved in contract talks with the following players:

Eric Comrie

The Winnipeg Jets netminder hits the open market as one of the more interesting free-agent goaltenders available. He has a small sample size with only 28 NHL games under his belt, meanwhile the 27-year-old is coming off a stellar season, posting a record of 10-5-1 with a 2.58 GAA and a .920 save %. The Leafs would love to add Comrie to back up Matt Murray.

Zach Aston-Reese

The elite forechecker is someone Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has linked to the Maple Leafs. ZAR spent last season between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks and can play on a team's third or fourth line. Toronto is losing Ilya Mikheyev, who is a great forechecker and plays the game with a lot of speed, so ZAR makes sense to be a cheaper replacement. Last season he finished with 15 points in 69 games and won't cost Toronto an arm and a leg to sign.

Andreas Athanasiou

The speed demon is a Toronto area native and could sign a 'show-me' contract with the Maple Leafs, much like we saw last season from Michael Bunting. The team has a need at second-line left-winger and the offensive gifted Athanasiou could fit in nicely with John Tavares and William Nylander. He scored 11 goals and 17 points in 28 games last season and if he ends up with the Maple Leafs, it won't be because they offered the most money.

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