Signing Clifford, Dahlstrom Solidifies Leafs’ Depth at Cheap Cost

As the Toronto Maple Leafs steam toward the playoffs, their GM, Kyle Dubas, completed some off-ice business Wednesday, announcing he’d signed forward Kyle Clifford and defenseman Carl Dahlstrom to contract extensions. They’re the type of moves we should expect more of from Dubas in the weeks and months ahead: short-term, low-money signings for players at the fringes of Toronto’s NHL roster.

This is not to belittle Dahlstrom or Clifford, the former of who signed a one-year, two-way contract that pays him $750,000 at the NHL level, while the latter agreed to a two-year NHL contract that pays $762,500 per season. The two are at opposite ends of the NHL career spectrum – the 27-year-old Dahlstrom is still trying to earn a full-time role in hockey’s best league, and the 31-year-old Clifford is aiming to hang onto an NHL job – but the important thing for Dubas was that both players have little contractual leverage, and are willing to play at or near the league minimum salary. And, for now, at least, both can be stashed on the American League’s Toronto Marlies roster as depth for post-season play.

As we all ought to know by now, Dubas has precious little salary cap space both in this season and in the seasons immediately ahead, and every dollar he can free up for top-end players Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, William Nylander and Mitch Marner is extremely valuable. Giving head coach Sheldon Keefe more low-salaried options is likely to be more of what we see from Dubas. The Leafs’ clear blueprint for success is going with high-octane, highly-skilled stars down the middle and on their top two lines, but that necessitates league-minimum-salaried labor on the bottom two lines and second and third defense pairings.

That’s where Clifford and Dahlstrom come in. Clifford has played only 10 games with the Leafs this season since being re-acquired for a second tour of duty in Toronto. In eight games with the Marlies, he’s got three goals, but the Leafs would be recalling him only if Keefe feels the team needs Clifford’s rugged edge. That may be a factor, but there would likely be a need for him only if the Leafs had injuries to their group of forwards.

Similarly, Dahlstrom – who has played one NHL game with Toronto this season, and who has 13 assists in 36 games with the Marlies this year – is well-down the Leafs’ depth charts. His play at the AHL level isn’t going to push a current Leafs defenseman out of a job, but if the Buds’ defense corps is bitten by the injury bug, Dahlstrom would be in consideration to play third-pairing minutes.

Every NHL GM knows the value of depth in any playoff run, but this season, in particular, may take a harsh toll on teams. The compacted schedule has already had negative impacts on rosters, and once the post-season begins and the game turns more physical, there will be more NHLers sidelined by injury. It is inevitable that teams are going to turn to players not currently in the NHL, and there’s been more than one occasion where non-marquee hockey talents contribute key goals that help teams win playoff series.

Nobody’s saying Leafs’ fans should expect big things from Clifford or Dahlstrom. But Dubas has done solid work in getting them on the cheap. Toronto is still going to go only as far as Matthews/Marner/Nylander/Tavares can carry them, but like any team, they need production out of their role players as well. Signing Clifford and Dahlstrom is a necessity if the Leafs are to be properly prepared for the important days to come.