Should the Leafs re-sign James van Riemsdyk?

Amongst all the bullshit that Toronto Maple Leafs fans are rambling on about, one question has stuck out to me. Mostly in that, nobody is asking it..

No, it's not whether Jake Gardiner's dog should be kicked, or if Leo Komarov can be both uncle & lover, it's JVR.

April 27th was locker clean out day for the Leafs and a few notable players were packing up their stuff for, presumably, the last time. At least the last time as Leafs. One of those players is James van Riemsdyk.

This season, James van Riemsdyk was the team's leading goal scorer, had a 7.2 point share and a 55.6% corsi player - in admittedly sheltered starts (62.7% OZs). So, why does he HAVE to go?

Well, one reason is his asking price. He will undoubtedly be a 6x6 free agent this summer, and the Leafs have other priorities. Auston Matthews early extension being the most obvious. Matthews will be a minimum $10 million player for the foreseeable future, and his prime , along with Marner and Nylander's will be over the next 4-7 years. That's not to say that even past their "prime," they won't be elite. But their best chance to win a cup based on what we know today is between now and 2021-2022 (roughly).

Next season, the Leafs have approximately $25,000,000 in cap space (and Lou Lamoriello under contract). With that flexibility, and the realization that any extension for Matthews wouldn't actually kick in until the following year, we start to see the play room the Leafs have.

Nylander needs an extension and he's actually the only player of note outside of James van Riemsdyk.

So, even if Nylander got a ridiculous $10M AAV extension, that still leaves the Leafs with $15M (and Lou Lamoriello) of cap space for next season.

What do the Leafs NEED?

Well, they NEED help on the right side of their defence. Something people have looked at from John Carlson. That is a maximum $8M deal. Maximum. That is assuming they don't deal Gardiner and have Travis Dermott move up - something The Athletic's James Mirtle pondered in this week's #MirtBag.

With that said, the Leafs could be looking at as much as $12M if a Gardiner trade is made for a defenceman of Carlson's $ value, or as much as $6-7M if they kept Gardiner and added Carlson (or an equal $-value player).

$6-7 M is a ton of dough, and that's the money they are going to need to use to replace JVR.

So how do they replace JVR? Well, let's look at the free agent options for next season.

Well, there is Evander Kane. He is available, and possibly for similar money, though it's highly unlikely he will leave San Jose for a big market - considering the foul taste he must have for hockey media at this point.

So, Kane plays more minutes, much closer on average to a first line winger. The goals are similar as well, JVR's 36 to Kane's 29, JVR having slightly more even strength scoring. JVR shoots less, but makes more on his chances, with a 6% shooting percentage advantage.

To my eye, they also have similar possession numbers. So it's close. You COULD replace JVR with Evander Kane.

Except you can't.

I don't know much about who Evander Kane is, I really don't. But, I know that JVR is about as beloved a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs as anyone on the team, and nobody has ever thrown his track suit in the shower.

So, all else equal, why not stick with the guy you know and the chemistry you know? Point JVR.

Who else?

James Neal? Pat Maroon? Rick Nash? I doubt it. None of those players has the career trajectory that JVR does moving forward.

So, it won't be accomplished through free agency. How about internal options?

Well, the Leafs have kind of shot themselves in the foot here. They are going to be replacing Komarov (though hopefully they bring him back), Bozak, Martin, Plekanec, Moore, Polak and Carrick (though for this exercise, we will ignore the defencemen).

So let's look at it this way....(from dailyfaceoff)

The Leafs need a left winger and 2 centres. That is if Marner and Nylander don't move to those positions - which is admittedly unlikely under Babcock.

Internally, they have a few options. Remember that Kapanen & Johnsson will will be a year older. Johnsson will need a new contract, but it likely won't be much more than league minimum on a bridge deal, based on his limited NHL time.

Miro Aaltonen and Freddie Gauthier are the obvious choices to graduate to fill the 4th centre position. A free agent will likely be needed for the 3rd/4th line centre though.

At left wing, they could maybe let Timashov get a whiff of the NHL, but with Kapanen and Johnsson on the NHL roster, one more rookie-ish winger is likely more than Babcock can handle.

JVR is the best option.

He might cost a lot, but in this league, the top teams (Pittsburgh [7], Washington [6], Boston [6], Nashville [6], Winnipeg [5]) have at least 5 forwards on contracts with AAV of $3M or more.

With JVR signed, the Leafs would only have 4 next season, and the magic 6 in the following years (adding Matthews and Marner to the list).

Marleau, Kadri, presumably Nylander.....and James van Riemsdyk.

As I see it, for the Leafs window, the best option available right now is to keep van Riemsdyk on the payroll and try to get his chemistry with Kadri. Right now they don't have the minor league depth to replace him, and they don't have the options in free agency to replace him.

Let's be realistic about the NHL, things rarely change. The big trade deal is almost never done, and the free agent signing is almost never done (see: Stamkos).

Welcome back James.