The Maple Leafs have locked in Jake McCabe with a fresh five-year deal, announced on Monday.
This contract keeps him away from the free agent market next summer and sets his cost at $4.51 million against the salary cap until 2029-30. While it might seem straightforward, Elliotte Friedman from Sportsnet shared that the total value is higher due to deferred money in later years. Bartlett Hockey, McCabe’s agency, confirmed it’s worth $23.5 million overall, with an average annual value of $4.7 million. Talks about this extension started back in September, and though Nick Kypreos thought it would be a six-year deal for $30 million, it ended up being slightly shorter.
Toronto has enjoyed having McCabe on their team without spending too much money for a couple of years now. He originally signed with the Blackhawks for four years at $16 million but was traded to Toronto along with Sam Lafferty before the 2023 trade deadline as Chicago was rebuilding . The Blackhawks kept half of McCabe’s salary, so Toronto only had to pay $2 million against their cap space for him—quite a bargain! Even if they paid his full cap hit of $4 million, it would still be less than what he could get elsewhere because he plays more than 20 minutes each game and scored 28 points last season.
Fans might think this is a smart move by Toronto since they are getting great value from McCabe’s performance on both ends of the ice.
Now starting strong again this season, McCabe averages over 21 minutes per game and has already notched three assists in nine games while maintaining a +6 rating. With 17 blocks and 19 hits so far, he’s second on the team in these stats as well! The Leafs control over half of shot attempts when he’s playing—55.4 percent—and expected goals at even strength are also up at 54.7 percent with him around.
While he won’t light up scoreboards often or become an offensive powerhouse anytime soon (though he can help out during power plays), he’s reliable in transitioning plays smoothly across zones without causing issues defensively either! But keeping him until age 36 might be risky; however right now just above $4.5M seems like quite an affordable price tag considering everything else offered by such versatile talent!
Looking ahead into next year’s budget planning: The Maple Leafs have committed about $66M towards fifteen players already leaving roughly another twenty-six-million-dollar gap available under projected increased caps allowing room enough potentially accommodate new contracts needed especially important ones involving key forwards like Mitch Marner plus John Tavares alongside RFA Matthew Knies too!
What do you think about all these changes?
