3 free agent defensemen the Toronto Maple Leafs should target

1. Alex Pietrangelo

Alex Pietrangelo is a right-handed defenseman who was born in King City, Ontario, which is roughly 50 kilometers (or 30 miles for you crazy metric users) from Toronto. Therefore, everyone wants the Toronto Maple Leafs to sign their sort of hometown boy.

On paper, Pietrangelo has everything the Maple Leafs are looking for. He’s a leader, having served as the captain of the St. Louis Blues since the start of the 2016-17 season. Pietrangelo is also a Stanley Cup champion and had it not been for Ryan O’Reilly, he might have won the Conn Smythe. Also, he’s right-handed and has a lot of experience playing heavy minutes.

However, the Maple Leafs would have to get creative to get the cap space necessary to sign him. Assuming the Leafs would fill in their other spots with cheap options, they’d have about $5.75 million of cap space, give or take $200,000 or so, before accounting for potential extensions for Ilya Mikheyev and Travis Dermott.

Would it be worth it? That’s a really good question. It would likely involve parting with William Nylander or Frederik Andersen, along with someone else for the latter. And then the Leafs would have to find Andersen’s replacement, though in this goalie market, that might be fairly easy.

Pietrangelo is the one defenseman on the market who is a perfect fit for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only question is, do they want him badly enough to make some significant moves? Because unless Pietrangelo is willing to give the Leafs a pretty substantial discount (and why would he if he isn’t giving the Blues one?), signing him might not be possible.