The pending unrestricted free agent is ok with negotiating a new deal mid-season but otherwise wants to keep his focus on playing for his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs.
MONTREAL — As he begins another full season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Michael Bunting is sure to keep his distance from what might be happening behind the scenes.
“It’s obviously easier said than done but I stay off social media and I stay off all of that stuff,” Bunting said. “I just try to ignore it and let my team handle that.”
Bunting is one of seven players of the Maple Leafs’ 20-man roster that are set to become unrestricted free agents at the end of this season. With a salary cap hit of $950k, there is little debate that Bunting has been the biggest home run when it comes to low-cost signings under Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas.
The 27-year-old Bunting started last season in the bottom-six group of forwards and quickly pushed himself up the lineup to become the team’s everyday first-line left-winger, alongside stars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
After a breakout first full season in the NHL that saw him score 23 goals and 63 points in 79 games, Bunting is due for a hefty raise. While it’s a common tactic by other players and agents to end negotiations when the season commences, Bunting’s team is staying open.
“I am fine (with that),” Bunting said on Wednesday about in-season negotiations. “I kind of don’t really want to know a lot (about what’s going on). I just want to play and all of that will happen later on.”
On the latest episode TSN’s Insider Trading, hockey insider Pierre LeBrun mused about Bunting’s future with the Maple Leafs and suggested that an eight-year deal could be preferable to both sides.
“No comment,” Bunting said as he smiled when asked if long-term was preferred.
Lebrun was also sure to point out that talks have not commenced between either side.
If the Maple Leafs wait things out, there is a risk that another big season from Bunting could drive the player’s cost higher.
“The challenge for him will be to not get caught up in anything else other than what he can control,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Bunting. “Bunts has clearly established himself as a successful player and an integral part of a successful line for us.”
With teams like the Buffalo Sabres making it fashionable lately to sign players with minimal NHL experience to eight-year contracts to keep costs down, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Toronto looks to that option as a means of keeping down the player’s average annual value.
Bunting took a hometown discount when he committed to the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2021. It’s not clear if he would do it again, but he did express his joy in playing for his hometown team
“I’m a Toronto boy, I love playing for the Maple Leafs,” he said. “It’s so much fun putting on that sweater every single night and that’s what I will say about it hopefully everything else figures itself out.”