Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the Jeff Marek Show on what the Toronto Maple Leafs could be thinking heading into their break, goaltender Ilya Samsonov and pending free agent defenseman Simon Benoit.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “What about the Maple Leafs? They’re on a pause as well. Taking two games from the Winnipeg Jets. I know Jet’s fans may be miffed about a couple of things but then again, I think Maple Leafs fans would must be miffed about the Tyler Bertuzzi non-goal with goalie interference of William Nylander.
But you’re Brad Treliving, what do you think now at the Maple Leafs break?
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Friedman: “Well, I still like, the one thing I think they feel is that they feel that their team showed a lot of guts like this this past week or so. They got back-to-back wins over Winnipeg. You know, the Wednesday game was was kind of a boring game and not just because I was on television as part of the coverage of it. It was, it was, it was just not a really eventful game and there was a lot of eventful stuff that happened on Saturday and they won.
You know, I’ll say this. You know if, if this continues with Samsonov, it’s a big victory for the organization. And it’s a big victory for for Curtis Sanford and Hannu Tolvanen. Like that is, like those two guys if this, if this continues with him, those two guys might have saved their season.
So, So I think right now they’re feeling a little better about things. I still think as you know, I sent him a Pod today, they are trying to figure out what defenseman they can add. I think they’re still thinking. But the other thing I would be doing if I was Toronto is, I would be trying to say like, what’s it going to, what’s it gonna take to re-sign Simon Benoit?
Like that’s a guy, his fit has been really good on and off the ice. Like, you know, he’s scored the score the empty netter, that you saw the reaction when he scored and he’s played really well in that role. And it’s very clear, that the videos sometimes, like the one now that all the Leafs fans know where you know like he doesn’t score a lot of goals but I’m happy to go after guys for you.
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Like he’s been a, he’s been a great cultural fit for them to. And that’s one thing I’d be looking at if I was Toronto, like, what’s it going to cost to lock this guy up for a few years?
