3. Trade Nikita Zaitsev
Nikita Zaitsev was a great find by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was brought out of obscurity playing in the KHL, to the fishbowl of Toronto and seemed to pass all the initial tests. He was a veteran of 300 KHL games but was undrafted and a relative unknown in North America when the Leafs signed him in the summer of 2016.
Identifying and signing the Russian right-shot defender was a great move by the Leafs brass. Zaitsev stepped in immediately and had a great rookie season at the age of 25. He had a few understandable growing pains, but put up 36 points in his first NHL season, his first season outside of Russia.
It was an impressive debut for the Moscow native. So impressive, Leafs management (Lou Lamoriello at the time) handed him a seven-year contract with a cap hit of $4.5 million. Zaitsev then followed up his solid freshman campaign with seasons of 13 and 14 points. He looked, at times this season, to be in over his head defensively and shrunk against the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs for the past two seasons.
He was the team’s fourth most used defenseman but is their second highest paid after Rielly. His $4.5 million is not money well spent on the Maple Leafs budget heading into next season. There are already rumors that he is looking for a fresh start somewhere else.
Zaitsev is a right-shot defender who is capable of contributing on the penalty kill. He’s not perfect, but he skates well, can move the puck, and has shown he can score nearly 0.5 points per game in the NHL.
He is an NHL defenseman, he just happens to be slightly overpaid for the next half-decade. Toronto won’t get much back because of the contract, but they’d breathe a huge sigh of relief to get out from under his salary cap hit.