Leafs Sign Nick Blackenburg To One Year Deal

On Sunday, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Nick Blankenburg’s professional tryout contract would be elevated to the real thing, signing the 28-year-old to a one-year contract.

Blankenburg played both of his preseason games with the “B” squad, picking up a single assist. The shot chart was not particularly flattering to him across those games, with a 22% shot attempt share (8 for, 29 against) ranking last among Leafs who played in both games.

Nevertheless, this might be a case of the team already liking what it saw and simply needing to figure out the cap calculus before a commitment. While I originally thought the invite might have been a favour, I received notes after my original post (which goes into more detail about his playing background) that suggested Toronto had identified him as a potential target early in the offseason.

Where Blankenburg will sit in the lineup is a curiosity point to me, as he’ll be fighting with Troy Stecher and Emil Andrae for the sixth defensive spot. As it stands, Stecher projects to play on the third pair with Oliver Ekman-Larsson in tomorrow’s season opener.

While the Leafs didn’t give specific contract details in their press release, Puckpedia is reporting that this deal comes in at a $1,400,000 salary cap hit.