As I was writing this, the news of the Dylan Larkin extension – $8.7-million AAV for eight years – came across the wire.

I guess that's fine. A bit rich for me but he's a local and he's the captain, and they sure don't have anyone better to spend the money on right now. Gotta spend it on someone.

Nice little coup for Steve Yzerman to make sure the deal had zero dollars of signing bonus mixed in there, which I bet was one of the sticking points in the negotiations. It always felt like this was gonna get done, and then it got done, so that was a lot of fretting about nothing.

Let’s go:

Are the Leafs rebuilding?

Here is the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup for Feb. 1, 2023 – exactly one month ago:

Bunting – Tavares – Marner

Jarnkrok – Kerfoot – Nylander

Engvall – Kampf – Anderson

Aston-Reese – Holmberg – S