Rosters are not set in stone yet, but the dust is starting to clear on the summer moves and we are starting to get a picture of what next season’s NHL landscape will look like. For the Toronto Maple Leafs specifically, we still need to find out the fates of James Reimer and Cody Franson -- beyond that, here are some thoughts on what has transpired thus far: 1 - One quietly interesting note and a bit of a strange trend this summer has been depth NHLers getting long-term deals. A few questionable players who got three year deals include:...

Based on what we have been told, we would be looking at a notably different roster if the Toronto Maple Leafs' plan A this summer had come to fruition. Dave Bolland would still be a Leaf, making $4.75M/year for five years, according to Darren Dreger. https://twitter.com/Hope_Smoke/status/484395392248053760 Josh Gorges would be a Leaf in exchange for Cody Franson, according to Dreger as well. https://twitter.com/Hope_Smoke/status/484396310939045889 Perhaps they would have signed Dan Boyle instead of Stephane Robidas, too, who Pierre Lebrun noted the Leafs were very serious about for days. https://twitter.com/Real_ESPNLeBrun/status/481848384995614720 From the outside, it appears the Leafs desired a defense of: Gorges - Phaneuf Gardiner - Boyle/Robidas Rielly - Polak Dave Bolland...

James Reimer and the Toronto Maple Leafs will go to arbitration to determine what the embattled Leafs goalie is worth. Hint: he's getting a raise. In my last article, I discussed the upcoming Club-elected salary arbitration of Ryan O’Reilly and the Colorado Avalanche. The flipside of Club-elected salary arbitration is Player-elected salary arbitration, which procedurally is the mirror image of Club-elected arbitration with the Player driving the process and being given the opportunity to present his case first rather than the Club. Yesterday, CBC’s Elliotte Friedman broke the story on Twitter that James Reimer was among the first players to file...

Former Soo Greyhounds GM, Kyle Dubas, named Assistant GM In somewhat of a shocking development, Claude Loiselle and Dave Poulin have been fired as assistant GMs. Incoming is a 28 year old executive formerly General Manager of the Soo Greyhounds and a big proponent of advanced statistics. https://twitter.com/simmonssteve/status/491590937030578177 The Maple Leafs have signaled a change in management direction under Brendan Shanahan, and it’s probably the closest thing resembling that culture change the Maple Leafs talked about. Dave Poulin was involved in a little bit of everything to do with the team as VP of Hockey Operations, as well as GM of the Toronto...

Cody Franson and the Toronto Maple Leafs avoided salary arbitration yesterday by agreeing to a final-hour, one-year, $3.3 million pact. The question now is whether Franson will be a Leaf or donning another team's sweater on opening night of the 2014-15 season. Here's both sides of the argument, as best I see it: PROS: - The most convincing argument for moving Franson: His value, as a UFA to be on July 1, 2015, is likely to to decline by the game unless he has a really big season or something unforeseen. If the Leafs don’t think they can get a deal done...

James Mirtle on TSN 1050 talking Cody Franson and the 2014-2015 Toronto Maple Leafs' makeup.

TSN 1050 Leafs Reporter, Jonas Siegel joined Blue Lunch to discuss the expected transactions to be made by the Toronto Maple Leafs. TSN 1050: Blue Lunch: July 21 - Jonas Siegel Released: Jul 21, 2014

Guest hosts Jeff Sammut and George Rusic take over The Jeff Blair Show and welcome CBC HNIC analyst Elliotte Friedman to talk all about the Leafs. Also Sammut and Rusic open up the phones to callers.

Cody Franson has avoided arbitration with the Toronto Maple Leafs by signing a one-year deal worth $3.3 million dollars. https://twitter.com/LeafsNews/status/491216487647313920 Franson, 26, lead the Maple Leafs defence in point production the last 2 seasons with 4g, 25a, 29pts in 45 games in 2012-2013 and 5g, 28a, 33pts in 79 games in 2013-14, most of which came on the power play. Franson has struggled defensively under former Leafs coach Ron Wilson and again under Randy Carlyle this past season in an increased role; there wasn't a lot of fight in his camp to go after a higher number, of which he was deserving...

Updating on Elliot's excellent piece about Monday's arbitration case, word is the Maple Leafs and Cody Franson have submitted their initial proposals and are more than $2 million apart on salary. https://twitter.com/LeafsNews/status/490573565679652864 Being $2.2 million apart probably isn't outrageous as far as this nasty process goes, but it certainly sounds like a huge divide when the player's desired contract figure is more than double that of the club. Always a demeaning process, the Maple Leafs have anchored their offer as if Franson is worth the same as he was paid on his previous one-year deal, which Franson felt was a pittance...

In my last two articles I discussed Ryan O’Reilly’s upcoming club-elected salary arbitration with Colorado Avalanche and James Reimer’s player elected salary arbitration with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In a continuing series of articles on salary arbitration, I’m now going to break down how (and why) I think the Cody Franson arbitration with the Toronto Maple Leafs - set for this Monday July, 21st - will play out. In the last two articles I outlined the mechanics behind the salary arbitration system set-out in Article 12 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”), so for the most part in this piece I’ll skip...