{"id":131184,"date":"2022-07-31T08:30:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T12:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=131184"},"modified":"2022-07-31T09:21:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T13:21:45","slug":"nhl-rumours-future-of-toronto-maple-leafs-forward-unclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/07\/31\/nhl-rumours-future-of-toronto-maple-leafs-forward-unclear\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Future of Toronto Maple Leafs Forward Unclear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Sunday and we&#8217;re in the middle of the off-season. However, we still have plenty of NHL rumours to discuss. It&#8217;s now a race to get cap compliant for the start of the 2022-23 season. Teams are going to have to make some hard choices and shed some contracts. One of those players may be Alex Kerfoot and his future with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Today&#8217;s NHL rumours looks into what his the next season might bring for him.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours are taken from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Alex Kerfoot Future with Leafs Uncertain<\/h3>\n<p>Jonas Siegel of The Athletic looked at what the future may hold for the Vancouver native. Toronto<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/07\/15\/toronto-maple-leafs-sign-free-agent-forward\/\" target=\"_self\"> did recently acquire<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/jarnkca01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Calle Jarnkrok<\/a> via free agency and both have a similar profile. Jarnkrok is regarded as a solid defensive player that chip in with the occasional goal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Does Calle Jarnkrok make Alex Kerfoot expendable to the Leafs? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gnXFgWVMqz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/gnXFgWVMqz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonassiegel\/status\/1552642447318126592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Kerfoot scored 13 goals last season for the Leafs, but one main issue is his contract. The soon-to-be 28-year-old makes $3.5 million for the next season. Jarnkrok is the cheaper option and Toronto is about $1.5 million over the cap heading into the season.<\/p>\n<p>The Leafs do need to get under the $82.5 million cap before the start of the season and trading Kerfoot seems to be the logical choice. Toronto has younger players in the AHL that could vie for the spot. However, Sigel thinks there could be a chance to keep Kerfoot.<\/p>\n<h3>Is the Alex Kerfoot Future Still With Leafs?<\/h3>\n<p>Kerfoot has been a player that&#8217;s been willing to move around the lineup. He&#8217;s played every spot in the Toronto lineup, but first-line centre and fourth-line right wing. The veteran does carry some offensive pop that can be useful on a team that&#8217;s had trouble getting goals from the supporting cast.<\/p>\n<p>Toronto could also move <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hollju01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Holl<\/a>&#8216;s contract if the right partner can be found. Holl does make $2 million and that would make the Leafs fall under the cap number. However, this doesn&#8217;t take into account <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/sandira01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rasmus Sandin<\/a> signing a deal. The restricted free agent has yet to sign a deal with the Leafs this off-season. His <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/07\/25\/nhl-rumours-contract-options-for-toronto-maple-leafs-defenceman\/\" target=\"_self\">cap number has been speculated<\/a> on in previous editions.<\/p>\n<p>If the Leafs sign Sandin, Toronto would likely have to move another contract. Moving Kerfoot likely spares the headache of having to move two players. However, there&#8217;s still a chance Leafs&#8217; general manager Kyle Dubas could keep Kerfoot around. Keeping Kerfoot would likely require some more fancy footwork, but it is still possible.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MapleLeafs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MapleLeafs<\/a> tally a pair of shorthanded goals to beat <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Canadiens?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Canadiens<\/a> 4-2 in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NHL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NHL<\/a> exhibition action in Toronto. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mikheil01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ilya Mikheyev<\/a> opens scoring 33 seconds in and Alex Kerfoot scores twice in the victory. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JHGxsfIYIx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/JHGxsfIYIx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SportsCentre (@SportsCentre) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SportsCentre\/status\/1288302316689543168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 29, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Sunday and we&#8217;re in the middle of the off-season. However, we still have plenty of NHL rumours to discuss. It&#8217;s now a race to get cap compliant for the start of the 2022-23 season. Teams are going to have to make some hard choices and shed some contracts. One of those players may be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":131185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4321,4547,4548,18],"tags":[1358,1730,2372,1696,2953,6127],"class_list":["post-131184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rumours","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-leafs","tag-alex-kerfoot","tag-calle-jarnkrok","tag-justin-holl","tag-kyle-dubas","tag-rasmus-sandin","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-rumours"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}