One of the obvious needs for the Toronto Maple Leafs is two top-four right-side defensemen. With that in mind, we checked out the top 12 right-handed unrestricted free agents on the Spotrac website. Here we will look at who we believe are the top six in no particular order.
UFA Defenseman One: Tyler Myers
Tyler Myers (34) is 6-foot-8 and 230 pounds. His last contract was for five years at $6 million per season. Throughout his career, Myers has participated in 995 games, averaging 21:53 of ice time per game. He scored 93 goals and added 278 assists, accumulating 371 points and maintaining a plus/minus rating of plus-9. Additionally, he has blocked 1,514 shots and delivered 1,243 hits.
In the playoffs, Myers has played 61 games with an average ice time of 20:52, scoring seven goals and nine assists for 16 points, with a plus/minus rating of minus-3. During the 2023-24 season, he played 77 games, averaging 18:57 of ice time, with five goals and 24 assists for 29 points and a plus/minus rating of plus-16. He also blocked 136 shots and delivered 110 hits.
Following media reports, we don’t see anyone discussing Myers as a fit for the Maple Leafs. We must say that we do wonder why. Myers spent the majority of this past season in the Vancouver Canucks top-four defence. While his TOI was down almost two minutes from his previous season, he still averaged nearly a minute more than Nikita Zadorov, and it seems everyone is talking about Zadorov.