- The Maple Leafs signed defenseman Emil Andrae to a two-year extension, avoiding arbitration
- Chris Johnston reported the deal carries a $1.55 million cap hit
- Read below for how Andrae fits on Toronto’s blue line
The Maple Leafs didn’t want to spend their summer in an arbitration hearing with Emil Andrae.
So they got the defenseman signed instead. Toronto announced a two-year contract extension with Andrae on Friday, keeping the 24-year-old off the open market and out of an arbitration room.
Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reported the deal carries a $1.55 million average annual value.
Andrae’s entry-level contract expired July 1, which made him a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. Signing him now takes that hearing off the table.
He landed in Toronto back in June. The Leafs picked up Andrae, goalie Samuel Ersson, and a 2026 third-round pick in a trade that sent Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit to Philadelphia.
Philadelphia drafted Andrae in the second round in 2020 and brought him along slowly. He spent three seasons in Sweden before crossing over to the AHL, then worked his way into a regular NHL job. This past season he played 61 games with the Flyers and put up 13 points.
Andrae stands just 5-foot-9, but he has never played like it. His aggressive, physical style is what carried an undersized blueliner into full-time NHL work.
Where he fits under new head coach Jim Hiller is the open question. Andrae averaged 15:20 a night last season with light special-teams usage, and with Toronto’s left side crowded, that $1.55 million cap hit lines up with a seventh-defenseman role.
Either way, the Leafs kept a cheap, mobile depth piece and skipped the arbitration headache.
