The Stanley Cup Champion signs in Toronto after the Colorado Avalanche elected not to tender him a qualifying offer.
The Stanley Cup Champion signs in Toronto after the Colorado Avalanche elected not to tender him a qualifying offer.
The Toronto Maple Leafs continued to lean hard into young free agents on Wednesday.
The club signed forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel to a one-year, $1 million contract.
The 26-year-old Aube-Kubel joins the Maple Leafs having split last season between the Philadelphia Flyers and Colorado Avalanche. He registered 11 goals and 22 points, all with the Avalanche in 67 regular season games for the club. He also appeared in 14 games during the Avalanche’s run to the 2022 Stanley Cup.
“I think Sheldon (Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe) really felt that he could add a lot with losing Ilya’s (Mikheyev) speed,” Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said of Aube-Kulle. “Nicolas provide a lot of it and forechecking pressure, being able to get up the ice. He showed that in Major Junior and also in the American League and in the NHL.”
At $1 million, Aube-Kubel’s salary cap hit comes in just a tad less than the $1.075 million he earned last season. The Avalanche didn’t tender the player a qualifying offer on Wednesday, allowing him to hit the open market.
“If he has time and space he can also shoot,” Dubas said of Aube-Kubel. “We’ll continue to work with him, bring him along.”
Earlier in the day, the Leafs signed goaltender Ilya Samsonov to a one-year, $1.8 million contract. Like Aube-Kubel, Samsonov was not tendered a qualifying offer, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.