Report: Bunting wants an 8 year contract to remain in Toronto

It's no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs are in a cap crunch. 

The Leafs have some of the richest contracts in the NHL on their payroll and, as a result, they are one of the most cap strapped teams in the entire league. The likes of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares are all paid in the $11 million annual neighborhood and when you add in big money deals for William Nylander and Morgan Rielly, things get tight quickly.

Due mostly to their cap constraints the Leafs have had to walk away from valuable players like Nazem Kadri, Zach Hyman, Ilya Mikheyev and Connor Brown in recent years and it looks now like they find themselves in a similar situation with pending free agent Michael Bunting.

Bunting is due for a new contract and after putting up 60+ points last season and on pace to surpass that this season, he should get a substantial raise on his affordable $950,000 salary.

NHL insider Pierre LeBrun reports that Bunting's agent Paul Capizzano is not negotiating a new deal with Leafs GM Kyle Dubas at this time. LeBrun believes that Bunting is seeking to stay in Toronto and for the long haul.

From LeBrun's most recent column for The Athletic:

There’s little doubt that Mike Bunting wants to remain in Toronto past this year and that the Maple Leafs want to keep him. But for the moment, it’s been very quiet on the contract front.

“We are not in negotiations at this time,” Bunting’s agent Paul Capizzano told The Athletic on Wednesday.

As I reported back in October. I believe the player would be interested in a max eight-year deal to secure his future with his hometown team, and I believe the Leafs front office might actually look at that, given the ability to massage the AAV. But for now, they haven’t picked up the phone yet, which might speak more to the sense of how much is riding on this season as a whole for the team, as far as finally delivering in the playoffs.

- Pierre LeBrun

Wow...

I absolutely love what Bunting brings to the Leafs' offence but he's not the kind of player you hand out an 8 year contract too. I know that term can bring down the salary in negotiations, but if that's the only solution the Leafs have to get Bunting under contract then maybe they should simply walk away. Again. Like they have every offseason for the past two or three now.