The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Tuesday morning that they had signed forward Wayne Simmonds to a 2 year, $900k contract extension. Simmonds had 7 goals and 9 points in 38 games for the Leafs this season.
This seems like a perfectly reasonable deal for the Leafs to make. For many Leafs fans, including myself, our perception of Simmons was skewed by his play in the second half of the season and the playoffs, but for the first 20 games of the season, his $1.5 million cap hit looked like a steal. Getting him for just over half of that is perfectly reasonable. The cap hit is low enough that should Simmonds’ play fall off, he can be buried in the minors with no cap penalty at all. There’s no real reason to complain about this deal.