Maple Leafs sign Dakota Mermis, Philippe Myers and Cédric Paré

An Original Six franchise made a few signings the day after free agency opened.

On Tuesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed defensemen Dakota Mermis and Philippe Myers, as well as forward Cédric Paré, to one-year contracts. Each player’s cap hit will be $775,000 for the 2024-25 season.

Mermis and Myers are both expected to bring experience to the back end.

Mermis comes to Toronto after spending the last four seasons with the Minnesota Wild, also playing a good number of games with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild. After playing just seven games over his first three years with Minnesota, the Alton, Illinois native played 47 games in 2023-24, the most in a single season in his NHL career. Mermis scored three goals and five assists for the Wild.

The 30-year-old has also played for the Arizona Coyotes and New Jersey Devils. In 74 NHL games, Mermis has scored four goals and eight assists, with a plus/minus of +5. The former Oshawa General has appeared in 431 AHL games, notching 21 goals and 118 assists, with a -20 rating. Mermis has also posted six points in 11 Calder Cup Playoff games.

Myers is taking a significant pay cut. The 28-year-old signed a one-year extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning in August 2022, with a cap hit of $1.4 million. However, that contract was buried as Myers was with Tampa’s primary affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, for most of last year. The Moncton, New Brunswick native played just five games with the Lightning, and 61 with the Crunch. In Syracuse, he scored four goals and 19 assists, including three assists in eight playoff games.

The former Philadelphia Flyer has been up and down between the NHL and AHL for most of his career, never being able to find a consistent spot in the lineup. This is not the first time Myers has been connected to the Maple Leafs. During the 2021-22 season, while with the Nashville Predators, he was loaned to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, playing 16 games with Toronto.

In 158 NHL games, Myers has scored eight goals and 28 assists with a +5 rating. In 238 AHL appearances, he has registered 28 goals and 89 assists, including 12 points in 26 playoff games.

This is Paré’s first-ever NHL contract, and he is the only one of this trio to have signed a two-way deal.

In five years of professional hockey, the Lévis, Quebec native has bounced around the minor leagues, spending time in the AHL and ECHL, having yet to make his NHL debut. After a long junior career that saw him playing the Saint John Sea Dogs and Rimouski Oceanic, with the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League champions with Saint John in 2017, he signed with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL. Over five seasons, he has also played with the Belleville Senators and Colorado Eagles of the AHL and the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers.

In 148 AHL games, Paré has notched 27 goals and 42 assists, including six points in nine postseason games. In 76 ECHL appearances, he has scored 22 goals and 28 assists, with three points in three Kelly Cup Playoff games.