The Toronto Maple Leafs today announced that they have signed winger Matt Read to a PTO. Who is Matt Read, you ask?

Well, he used to play for the Flyers, so he knows Dave Hakstol. Read, in his prime, was a solid citizen 10-20 goal-scoring forward, who had some great defensive results and was a black hole for offence. Visualizations of his career results look a lot like Matt Martin’s only with double the points and a tiny fraction of the penalty minutes. He takes so few himself, that even though he’s not the sort of player to draw penalties, he ends up with a very favourable differential.

Read isn’t in his prime anymore, he’s 33, and last year as a member of the Minnesota Wild, he spent most of the season in the AHL, where he was pretty good. He had 16 goals and 21 assists in 61 games played and another eight points in 10 playoff games.

On a PTO, he can fulfill the veteran requirement for preseason games, continue his career in the NHL closer to where he’s from (he began is hockey career on the Lucan Irish, whose home the Leafs played in last fall), and he should fit in very well on a Marlies team that is collecting the very best of the best of veteran players. That is, should the Leafs sign him to a contract.

He did play in 12 NHL games last year, on a league-minimum contract, so he is a potential emergency call-up type of player, as well.

Free Agents and Contracts