Things didn’t go exactly as planned the last time the Maple Leafs lured an aging veteran from San Jose to watch a Stanley Cup in Toronto.
The problem with Patrick Marleau’s signing, however, was twofold: 1) The Leafs paid him too much and for too long – a cap of $ 6.25 million on a three-year contract. And 2) The Leafs overexposed him in the twilight of his NHL career.
The Joe Thornton acquisition appears to be different on both fronts.
For one, the Leafs gave 41-year-old Thornton a one-year contract on the NHL minimum of $ 700,000. There’s no risk in that regard, unlike the first-round election that the Leafs Carolina ultimately had to pay to break Marleau’s third year contract. Thornton is probably a one-and-do, neat and simple.
More important: The Leafs don’t have to outplay Thornton like Marleau. He won’t log the nearly 17 minutes Marleau averaged in his two Leafs …
.
