Leafs sign 24-year-old former Flyers defenseman in free agency

The defenseman signed a two-year deal worth $1.55 million per season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, according to insider Chris Johnston.

That number matters more than it looks, because Toronto entered July already over the salary cap ceiling without even accounting for Andrae's next contract.

General manager John Chayka's offseason left the Leafs $127,382 above the limit before Andrae's deal was even finalized, according to PuckPedia's daily tracking.

Andrae was projected to command significantly more through arbitration, with some estimates putting his walk-away number as high as $4.95 million.

That gap between $1.55 million and a possible arbitration award closer to $2.5 million or higher is why this deal reads as team-friendly for Toronto.

Toronto acquired Andrae in the Joseph Woll trade specifically to add a mobile, puck-moving defenseman without taking on term or dollars nobody wanted.

Instead, the Leafs briefly created the opposite issue, layering in Bobrovsky, Raddysh, and five forwards on July 1 before ever addressing Andrae's arbitration risk.

A deal at $1.55 million instead of something closer to $2.5 million or higher clears real space, exactly when McKenna's rookie cap hit and Domi's LTIR math were still unresolved.

Andrae isn't projected to crack Toronto's top four next season, sitting behind Ekman-Larsson, Rielly, Tanev, McCabe, and Raddysh on the depth chart.

That bottom-pairing role is precisely why both sides had incentive to avoid arbitration, where Andrae's limited ice time this year would have hurt his case anyway.

This wasn't a contract negotiation about Andrae's value as a player, it was Chayka buying cap flexibility while Andrae bought term security before hitting the open market again.

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