It’s solely been just a few hours since David Kämpf had his contract terminated by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and groups are already coming to mild. In his latest rendition of “32 Thoughts,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins have been excited about signing the freshly minted unrestricted free agent.
Canucks can be a great match
Of all of the groups that could possibly be excited about Kämpf, the Canucks take advantage of sense. The staff is coping with longer-term accidents to Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger, which have additional thinned an already depleted middle core. Behind Elias Pettersson, the staff is using Max Sasson, Aatu Räty and not too long ago acquired Lukas Reichel as their subsequent three choices.
That’s to not recommend that Kämpf needs to be thought-about a cure-all to Vancouver’s woes, although he can be an enchancment on their present bottom-six choices. The 30-year-old middle has scored 31 objectives and 85 factors in 301 video games with the Toronto Maple Leafs over the past 4 years, with a 51.7% success charge within the faceoff dot.
In the meantime, Pittsburgh’s curiosity could come from familiarity with Kämpf’s recreation. The Penguins Common Supervisor and President of Hockey Operations, Kyle Dubas, introduced Kämpf to the Maple Leafs forward of the 2021-22 season on a two-year, $3M contract. Brad Touring was on the helm when Toronto signed Kämpf to the four-year, $9.6M deal that was terminated this morning.
Nonetheless, the Penguins don’t have a real want for Kämpf outdoors of the entrance workplace’s familiarity. The staff is already comparatively deep at middle with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kevin Hayes as their top-three choices, and has put a premium on bringing in youthful gamers — not extra ones which have already cleared the 30-year threshold.
There are just a few extra groups, such because the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils, that might use extra ahead depth of their backside six. Nonetheless, on condition that groups are already being named, Kämpf shouldn’t anticipate to stay a UFA for very lengthy.
