If the bruises, the black eye and the blood throughout their playoff push final season wasn’t sufficient to let you know that Jake McCabe was prepared to put all of it on the road for the Toronto Maple Leafs, then his new contract signed on Monday might be an indication that he really has the fervour.
McCabe formally re-upped with the Maple Leafs on a five-year extension with a median annual worth (AAV) of $4.51 million, the crew introduced. As appears to be the case with quite a few offers signed not too long ago, there’s cash deferred as a part of the contract, in line with Elliotte Friedman, between years two and three of the extension. By doing it, the AAV of the deal dropped from $4.7 million to the $4.51 million they agreed upon.
McCabe 5 12 months $23.5M #LeafsForever ext:
Yr 1 775K Base, 5.225M Signing Bonus
Yr 2 1M Base, 1.5M paid SB, 3M SB deferred to Yr 6
Yr 3 1M Base, 1.3M paid SB, 2.5M SB deferred to Yr 6
Yr 4 2.6M & 1M SB
Yr 5 3.6MMoney paid 4.7M Common, Cap Hit (w/ deferrals) $4.51M
Yr 1/2 No…
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) October 28, 2024
Now, locked up for the following 5 years, the query is whether or not or not the Maple Leafs prolonged McCabe on contract for each participant and crew.
McCabe Deal Stacks Up With Offseason Defensive Market
This previous offseason, defensemen have been a premium — not less than that’s what the greenback quantities being thrown round would counsel.
Victor Hedman signed for 4 years with and $8-million AAV. Jake Middleton at 4 years and an AAV of $4.35 million and J.J. Moser bought two years at $3.375 million per season.
Even second-year gamers like Braden Schneider signed for 2 years at $2.2 million per season, whereas Brock Faber signed for eight years with an AAV of $8.5 million.
The actual fact is, cash was thrown at defensemen this offseason and whereas a few of these names contribute extra to their respective groups at each ends of the ice than McCabe, their AAVs iron out to make McCabe’s new deal look fairly good for the Maple Leafs in the long term — particularly with John Tavares’ $11 million coming off the books.
Think about this, the New York Rangers signed Ryan Lindgren to a one-year deal value $4.5 million. Lindgren completed 2023-24 with three objectives and 17 factors in 76 video games and whereas Lindgren is barely 26 and that might affect the greenback quantity, McCabe nonetheless posted 28 factors and a plus-20 on the age of 30 final season for the Maple Leafs who had one of many lowest productions from their blue line within the NHL in 2023-24.
McCabe Earned High-4 Cash With High-4 Minutes
As for the place he ranks on the Maple Leafs, McCabe has been a constant a part of their top-four since coming over from the Chicago Blackhawks. Throughout his tenure with the Maple Leafs, he has averaged simply over 20 minutes per sport towards some powerful competitors.
In 103 video games with the Maple Leafs, he has 9 objectives and 36 factors, averaging 0.37 factors per sport, his highest with any crew in his profession.
Associated: Maple Leafs Measuring Up Towards Jap Convention’s Greatest
On the crew’s depth chart, McCabe slots in as their second subsequent to Morgan Rielly and has slid into that top-four function in a approach that has earn him some onerous minutes down the stretch in his first couple of seasons with the crew.
He’s been a dependable, go-to defenceman for each Sheldon Keefe and, now, Craig Berube. As such, the Maple Leafs are paying him as a top-four defenceman with the extension he signed. The deal, which kicks in subsequent season, will see McCabe get a increase of simply over $2.5 million per season and can make him the second highest paid defenceman on the crew behind — you guessed it, Rielly.
As for what the Maple Leafs have locked up of their top-four subsequent season, it’s not that outrageous. Rielly, McCabe, Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson are all locked up by way of 2028 at a mixed cap hit of simply $19.6 million towards a rising cap, in line with Luke Fox.
Whereas Rielly is the youngest of the 4 at 30 years outdated, having your core 4 defensive gamers locked up for underneath $20 million figuring out that the cap is about to extend isn’t a nasty place to be in, all issues thought-about.
