Report: Toronto Maple Leafs make Wayne Simmonds available for trade
The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed forward Wayne Simmonds on the trade block, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Sunday.
Simmonds, 34, scored five goals and 16 points in 72 games with the Maple Leafs during the 2021–22 regular season. The 6’2″, 184-pound right wing was held off the scoreboard in two playoff contests.
Friedman said the Maple Leafs have circulated an email indicating Simmonds’ availability and will prioritize “doing right by the player” over the best return.
With season-opening rosters finalized tomorrow afternoon, TOR sent email making it known 1,019-game vet Wayne Simmonds is available. Return is not as important as "doing right by the player." Simmonds has said he feels good and very much wants to play. Hopefully, there's a path.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 9, 2022Simmonds, who hails from Scarborough, has spent the last two seasons with the Maple Leafs and is entering the second half of the two-year extension he signed with the team in 2021. His deal carries a $900,000 NHL cap hit and a 10-team no-trade clause.
Selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the second round (No. 61 overall) of the 2007 NHL Draft, Simmonds spent the first three seasons of his professional career in L.A. before being traded to the Philadelphia Flyers as part of the Mike Richards deal in 2011.
Simmonds emerged as a premier NHL power forward in Philadelphia, reaching 60 points twice and regularly surpassing 20 goals. The Flyers traded him to the Nashville Predators at the 2019 trade deadline.
After brief stops with the Predators, New Jersey Devils, and Buffalo Sabres, Simmonds signed a cheap deal with the Maple Leafs in 2020. Simmonds has scored 12 goals and 25 points in 110 games over his two seasons in Toronto and was with the club when he played his 1,000th NHL game last year.
In 1,019 career NHL regular-season games with Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Nashville, New Jersey, Buffalo, and Toronto, Simmonds has scored 263 goals and 524 points. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent next summer.