There are lots of good links to share with you today, including a number of pieces on Cody Franson avoiding salary arbitration with a last-minute deal worth $3.3M for next season.
From Justin Fisher at TLN:
That $3.3M figure falls pretty much down the middle of Cody Franson's reported asking price of $4.2M and the Leafs' offer of $2M flat. These numbers, that every team and player submit prior to arbitration, are always a joke. The player will always ask for too much, while the team will always offer too little.
Again from TLN, Jeffler concludes that:
In short, Cody Franson is probably the best player in his position/age/salary/term range. That part is good, and if he has any form of resurgence this year, that $3.3M cap hit will look pretty good. The only issue, of course, is that it's such a non-ideal range to be in to begin with, and likely leads to him not being around a year from now.
The Leafs now have about $9.2M remaining in cap space, with James Reimer and Jake Gardiner still to sign, and a seventh defenceman to add (probably Granberg and his $800K cap hit). While we all wait in anticipation of those new Reimer and Gardiner contracts, it's likely the Leafs enter the season with a nice cap cushion of approximately $3M. That ain't half bad.
