Max Pacioretty has officially joined the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The veteran of 902 NHL games signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract on Monday — two days before the Leafs season starts — as he continues to make a comeback from multiple surgeries on his Achilles tendon.
Pacioretty’s new contract has a low base salary ($873,770) but includes games-played bonuses of $626,230 that take it to $1.5 million, under an age 35-plus contract structure. Pacioretty had a similar contract structure last season with the Washington Capitals and earned $2 million for passing the 20-game mark.
The advantage for the Leafs is the bonuses only count against the salary cap once they are attained, and they can be shifted to next season if they lead to Toronto being over the cap at the end of the season. For now, Pacioretty only counts his base salary against the cap, buying them some early breathing room.
Pacioretty was in Leafs training camp on a professional tryout agreement, but the general terms of this contract were agreed to in the summer before coming to Toronto. He spent the majority of camp on a third line playing with John Tavares and Nick Robertson.
In addition to Pacioretty, the Leafs also signed forward Steven Lorentz to a league minimum $775,000, one-year deal on Monday. They also extended the contract of prospect defenseman Cade Webber an additional two years at a cost of $825,000 a season.
Pacioretty finished tied for the Leafs scoring lead in preseason with two goals and three assists. Lorentz, meanwhile, had found a home on a hard-hitting fourth line with David Kampf and Ryan Reaves after winning the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers last season.
For Pacioretty, the contract with the Leafs represents part of a difficult, ongoing comeback attempt. The 35-year-old has only played 91 games over the past three seasons due to injury and managed only four goals in 47 games with the Capitals last season.
But prior to the 2022-23 season, Pacioretty was one of the league’s more reliable goal scorers, putting up 303 goals in his previous 11 seasons, seventh most among all NHL players.
How much of that scoring punch he can still provide remains to be seen, but the Leafs can use additional help on the wing given they lost Tyler Bertuzzi to free agency in the offseason and don’t have many wingers with a scoring pedigree outside of Mitch Marner and William Nylander.
The Leafs also placed goaltender Matt Murray and defenseman Marshall Rifai on waivers Sunday in order to get under the $88 million salary cap and 23-player roster limit.
The Leafs enter the season with $4.3 million in additional spending over the cap. They placed three players on long-term injured reserve (Calle Jarnkrok $2 million, Jani Hakanpaa $1.47 million and Dakota Mermis $775,000) and one on regular injured reserve (Connor Dewar $1.18 million) in order to get within $1 dollar of the limit in advance of Monday’s 5 p.m. roster deadline.
(Photo: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)
