Maple Leafs Continue Incredible Offseason by Extending Alexander Kerfoot and Cody Ceci

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been very active during the 2019 NHL offseason. Their most recent move saw them trade away Nazem Kadri to the Colorado Avalanche in return for Tyson Barrie and Alexander Kerfoot.

Just three days after that trade, Maple Leafs' GM Kyle Dubas has locked up some of his most recent acquisitions.

Cody Ceci was acquired in a seperate trade with the Ottawa Senators that saw the departure of defenseman Nikita Zaitsev and forward Connor Brown. Both Ceci and Kerfoot have only been members of the Maple Leafs for a few days now, so the front office is making sure they remain constants in some capacity.

Ceci's deal is only for one-year, in which he will earn $4.5 million. Kerfoot, on the other hand, signed a much larger deal. His contract will keep him in Toronto for another four years with an average annual value of $3.5 million. Both players were restricted free agents.

Even with Kerfoot and Ceci's extensions, the Maple Leafs aren't done yet. Toronto's leading goal-scorer Mitch Marner is in search of a new contract from the Leafs. The last thing Kyle Dubas wants for his team is to lose one of their top players. Signing Kerfoot and Ceci was without a doubt a good move for the Leafs, but it may have left them with too little cap space to lock up Marner on a new deal.

Marner is looking to get paid a similar salary to those of John Tavares and Auston Matthews, both of whom make north of $11 million per season. The Maple Leafs have had one of the best offseasons of any team in the NHL, especially after the acquisition of Barrie, Kerfoot and Ceci, but the most pressing matter for Dubas and the Maple Leafs still lies ahead.