The Toronto Maple Leafs have extended Christopher Tanev to a six-year contract worth $4.5 million annually, as per Chris Johnston. The Maple Leafs had previously acquired the defenseman’s rights for prospect Max Ellis and a 2026 seventh-round pick.
Profiling Christopher Tanev
There’s no two ways around it — Tanev is one of the league’s absolute best shutdown defensemen. The Ontario native isn’t one to find the scoresheet, with a career-high of 28 points and a career total of 190 points in just south of 800 games, but he is defensively responsible while munching tough minutes and assignments.
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The 34-year-old most recently spent time with the Dallas Stars, who acquired him from the Calgary Flames in a three-way trade for a second-round selection in 2024, prospect Artem Grushnikov, and a fourth-rounder in 2026 at the 2024 Trade Deadline. In his 19 games with the Stars, he put up one goal and five total points while playing 19:13 nightly. He had two assists in their 19 playoff games. With the Flames this past season, he had one goal and 14 points in 56 games.
Tanev is a defenseman who excels at preventing zone entries from the opposition and retrieving the puck in the defensive zone. He isn’t one to contribute much on offense, but for a defense-first player, he moves the puck up-ice well enough. In his 56 games with the Flames in 2023-24, he posted an expected goals share (xGF%) of 51.6%. He turned his game up a notch in Dallas, where he posted a career-best xGF% of 62.12% in a slightly more sheltered role.
Maple Leafs Add Another No-Nonsense Defender
What the Maple Leafs have lacked for several seasons now is a second puck-moving defenseman to take some pressure off Morgan Rielly. While Tanev is a better puck-mover than, say, Jake McCabe, GM Brad Treliving seems to be still prioritizing in-zone defense to transitional play. At least now, Rielly has a first-pair caliber partner who is significantly sturdier on the back end than anyone he’s had before.
There’s reason to believe that Tanev will be in an increased role in Toronto compared to what he’s used to, simply because there is no defenseman on the right side of the Maple Leafs’ lineup who projects as a better player than him. He’ll probably be playing more minutes than he’s used to, but I don’t foresee that being an issue for him. He’s consistent and has shown that he can handle 21+ minutes a night many times before.
