Jack Campbell, former Maple Leafs goalie, was in the news yesterday as part of the major woes that Edmonton is experiencing this season. He signed a way too big and way too long contract for Toronto's tastes, and now Edmonton is paying the price (literally) for it.
Edmonton will be putting Jack Campbell on waivers today
β Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) November 7, 2023
But that got me thinking about Toronto's former players from last season who are now on different teams. How many of them do we miss, and how many are we sharing a laugh at from the other team's mistake?
Let's go through them...
Michael Bunting
Signed for 3 x $4.5 million in Carolina, playing mostly with Necas and Kotkaniemi. His 8 points in 11 games looks good, but if you believe in WOWYs he's very much a passenger on that line. His cap hit was too much for what Toronto would have wanted, especially with the three years. So even though I think we'd all have liked him more than Domi, Domi also cost $1.5 million and 2 years less.
Rasmus Sandin
Sandin was traded at the deadline for Erik Gustafssson and a first round pick. Sandin had tons of points for the Capitals down the stretch last year, but has only 1 point in 10 games this year on their second pair. I will very safely assume that everyone would much prefer Sandin to still be around than Jonathan bloody Klingberg, but what if I told you that first round pick Toronto got turned into Easton Cowan? Hmm...
Ryan O'Reilly
Toronto has struggled to find a 3C to really work β going from Minten, to bumping up Kampf from the third line, to Holmberg I think, and now to Domi. Instead, ROR signed a 4 years x $4.5 million deal with Nashville and has been having a nice season with 7 goals and 11 points in 11 games as their 1C. God he'd be nice to have on the roster these days... but by all accounts Toronto just couldn't give him the money and term he wanted to stay. Bertuzzi sounds like he was their backup plan after failing to get ROR.
Alex Kerfoot
He signed in Arizona for 2 years x $3.5, and has 3 points in 11 games in more of a depth role on a surprisingly good Coyotes team. He's played mostly with Jack McBain and Liam O'Brien if you're wondering about the low points. Another guy I'd rather have than Domi, but another guy who likely was not signing here and was probably too rich in cap and term for what we needed him for.
Pierre Engvall
Engvall was another guy we traded away at the deadline, which got us a 3rd round pick in this coming draft. He has 5 points in 10 games for the Islanders so far this season as their 2LW with Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri. He was a pending free agent this past summer, and eventually signed a Lou-special: 7 years x $3 million. lol no thanks.
Justin Holl
A whipping boy for Toronto fans for years, but a legitimate success story and good soldier at a cheap cap hit for Toronto. Signed for 3 years x $3.4 million with Detroit, chained to Ben Chiarot on their second pair. His points don't matter, his fancy stats and impacts don't matter, what matters is he's NOT KLINGBERG!
Zach Aston-Reese
Signed for 1 year x $775k, which if my math is right is less than 3 years x $1.35 million.
Sam Lafferty
We had to trade Lafferty with a $1.15 million cap hit left for one more season for cap reasons. But that's still less money at less term for a better player than Ryan freaking Reaves.
Noel Acciari
Signed for 3 years x $2 million with Pittsburgh. I'd have loved him for the bottom six, more than even Domi if I'm honest but I hated Domi before the rumour of him signing here even began. That contract would be rich unless he played and produced well enough to be a 3C, which he likely wouldn't. He's a 4C on Pittsburgh and has 1 point in 10 games.
Luke Schenn
3 years x $2.75 million?????
lol nope.
LINKS FROM THE BRANCHES
Toronto has signed one of their other top picks from the PWHL draft!
We're fired up about Jesse Compher (@JessComph7) joining the squad... are you? π€ pic.twitter.com/ZCWvg37vDi
β PWHL_Toronto (@PWHL_Toronto) November 7, 2023
Dom at The Athletic wrote a whole lot of words to just answer "it's not".

When you see things like this start to become more popular, just remember to pop into the comments and say: "PPP did it first!"
A while back, I wrote this piece on how embracing fashion could help hockey grow.
β Sonny Sachdeva (@SachdevaSonny) November 7, 2023
Building off that, Iβm leading a new series at SN this season, speaking with stylists and designers from around the sports world to break down the best NHL fits each month: https://t.co/Wn9jh3rVAP https://t.co/GAmqofjFP6
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