Maple Leafs re-sign Martin Marincin to one-year, minimum contract

Martin Marincin will be back with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 2019-20 campaign after signing a one-year, $700,000 contract, the team confirmed on Saturday.

The 27-year-old Slovakian is coming off a 2018-19 campaign where he split time between the Maple Leafs, the AHL’s Marlies and NHL press boxes throughout the league. He finished the season with a goal and four helpers in 24 NHL regular season contests to go along with a goal and three assists in eight AHL regular season games.

His newest deal is the fourth short-term, standard contract that he’s signed with the team.

He’s coming off a one-year, $800,000 deal.

A second-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 2010, Marincin’s professional hockey career has been an interesting journey thus far. Too talented to play in the AHL, he’s bounced in and out of NHL lineups for the last half-decade.

With the exception of the 2015-16 season where he played 65 games for the Leafs, he’s struggled to lock up a consistent spot at the sport’s pinnacle. Looking at his team’s situation entering the upcoming campaign, he might find himself in a similar spot unless things fall for him the right way.

Marincin is the seventh blue-liner under contract with Toronto for 2019-20. And while Nikita Zaitsev would love a fresh start in another market and unrestricted free agent Igor Ozhiganov won’t return, Ron Hainsey and Jake Gardiner remain unsigned.

While it’s unlikely Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas will be able to sign Gardiner if Mitch Marner puts pen to paper with the team, Marincin may find himself on the wrong side of the numbers once again.

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