Not long after the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated by the Boston Bruins on May 4, fans and pundits of the club mapped out plans for the offseason, players to trade and sign or re-sign, coaches to fire, kitchen sinks to install.
Things moved quickly. The team fired head coach Sheldon Keefe on May 9, then hired Craig Berube as his replacement on May 17. Berube had coffee with forward Mitch Marner, or allegedly did based on a photo shared on social media on May 27. Fans still want Marner to be traded for … well, they can’t seem to decide on what to trade him for, but that’s a conversation for another column.
For now, let’s focus on forward Max Domi, who signed with the Maple Leafs last July on a one-year, $3 million contract. Through the first 52 games of the 2023-24 regular season, the forward had five goals and 25 points, seldom getting offensive opportunities and looking like a ghost on a lot of nights. Hell, it took him 22 games to get his first goal of the season, all the way to Dec. 2.
But in his final 28 regular-season games, Domi replaced Marner as Auston Matthews’ linemate, scoring four goals and 18 assists for 22 points, feeding the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy-winning superstar the type of passes superstars should be on the receiving end of.
By the end of the season, Domi was beloved, earning the nightly admiration of fans on social media and those at Scotiabank Arena wearing his sweater — or his father’s — with many wanting the 29-year-old to return to the blue and white.
But how much will he look for during negotiations? Will the kinda-sorta-hometown kid sign a hometown discount, or will he go for what could be his last chance at signing the long-term contract that’s alluded him throughout his career?
What We Know So Far About Domi and the Maple Leafs
When the Maple Leafs cleaned out their lockers on May 6, Domi didn’t hide what he wanted in the future.
“Do I want to come back? Absolutely. I think this team has everything it takes to do something special and I would love to help them do that,” Domi told reporters. “There’s nothing like playing in the NHL, other than playing for the Maple Leafs. You can’t beat it, especially growing up in Toronto.”
Domi went one step further in his comments.
Related: Max Domi’s Resurgence with Maple Leafs Could Lead to Extension
“The only way to surpass that would be to win here. I know I keep talking about it. But that’s really all we care about in this locker room, is finding a way to win.”
Give him credit: some players entering free agency stay mum, keeping their cards close to the vest. They want every team to think they have a chance to sign them, hoping to maximize their value and earn every dollar they can. But Domi? He wants to play for the team he grew up watching.
On May 24, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun wrote that the Maple Leafs and Domi have had conversations about getting a deal done.
There’s already been a conversation between the Leafs front office and agent Judd Moldaver of Wasserman expressing mutual interest in getting a deal done. But no numbers exchanged yet.
Domi enjoyed his season playing in his hometown. Similar to the Bertuzzi situation, term will be key for the 29-year-old Domi after he settled for one year, $3 million with the Leafs last summer. I would imagine five or six years at between $5 million and $6 million would get it done. But how does that fit in with everything else the Leafs will have to get done this summer?
Pierre LeBrun, ‘Rumblings on Guentzel, Kane, Stamkos, Lindholm, Bertuzzi and more as NHL free-agent market heats up,’ The Athletic 5/24/24
Overpaying Domi Is Not Worth It for Maple Leafs
Let’s get this out of the way: a five- or six-year deal at $5 or $6 million is too much term and too much money. Through nine NHL seasons, Domi’s highest offensive output in a single campaign was in 2018-19 with the Montreal Canadiens, scoring 28 goals and 44 assists for 72 points. Looking at his career stats, the season stands as an outlier, as Domi otherwise has had only two 50-point campaigns and a trio of 40-point seasons.
That’s not the type of offensive production you need out of someone you pay somewhere between $5-and-$6 million. This team has been overreliant on top-heavy lineups, unable to find scoring depth among the other seven or eight forwards that aren’t named Marner, Matthews, William Nylander or John Tavares. If you’re going to go into the 2024-25 campaign with four forwards making over $10 million — and unless they pull off a Marner deal or somehow convince Tavares to invest in property in Utah, that is what’s going to happen — then paying someone who has eclipsed 60 points just once before his age 30 season is not a smart investment.
Related: Maple Leafs News & Rumors: Cowan, Robertson, Bertuzzi & Domi
Look at Domi’s contract history: in July 2022, he signed the same one-year, $3 million deal, but with the Chicago Blackhawks, eventually being traded to the Dallas Stars ahead of the trade deadline. Before that, a two-year deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets that paid him $5.3 million per season, but he wound up joining the Carolina Hurricanes in 2021-22 ahead of the trade deadline. The contract before that was a two-year deal signed with the Canadiens after being traded by the Arizona Coyotes, the team that drafted him.
I bring this up because players pave their own unique paths over the course of an NHL career. How many can say they skated for seven teams — one-sixth of the league — by the time they hit 30?* At this point, Domi isn’t interested in another change of scenery, and if he has to go through another, I’m assuming he’d want it to be his last for the foreseeable future.
* No, seriously, how many? I feel like that would make for a good bar trivia question
Professional athletes earning the right to unrestricted free agency want to sign that sweet, sweet long-term deal that guarantees them not just the money, but security for down the road. Not many enter the offseason as a UFA for the third time in their career, let alone at 30 (again, another great bar trivia question), but here we are. No one is going to blame him for wanting to maximize his value.
But I’ll conclude on this: if Domi really wants to carve out a legacy in this league that goes beyond his hereditary roots, that’s more than just a few decent seasons where his biggest career highlight was one Western Conference Final run with the Stars in 2022-23, then sign at a discounted rate with the Maple Leafs. Be a cog in the machine that works to achieve a goal that’s nearly 60 years in the making. Be the annoying winger whose deceptive speed catches unsuspecting blueliners off guard, who can retrieve pucks with the best of them and feed open linemates in the offensive zone. Let’s call it a three-year, $12 million deal that will pay him $4 million annually for a chance to play on the wing with the best goal scorer of the 21st century.
To quote Private First Class Smithson Utivich: I’d make that deal.
