{"id":281041,"date":"2025-11-13T19:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/281041\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T19:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:55:09","slug":"maple-leafs-place-david-kampf-on-unconditional-waivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/281041\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs Place David K\u00e4mpf On Unconditional Waivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

12:58 p.m.:\u00a0The Maple Leafs officially announced<\/a> K\u00e4mpf\u2019s waiver placement. They\u2019ll clear $1.25MM in cap space tomorrow as a result of the move, not his full $2.4MM since he\u2019s already carrying a reduced impact in the minors. K\u00e4mpf retains this year\u2019s signing bonus as part of the termination, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

10:13 p.m.: The Maple Leafs will place center\u00a0David K\u00e4mpf<\/a>\u00a0on unconditional waivers this afternoon for the purpose of a mutual contract termination, Darren Dreger of TSN<\/a> reports. Assuming he clears tomorrow, he\u2019ll be free to sign a new contract with an NHL club at any time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The 30-year-old K\u00e4mpf is in the third season of a four-year, $9.6MM contract. It hasn\u2019t panned out as Toronto general manager Brad Treliving had hoped when he signed it in June 2023. K\u00e4mpf has not played for Toronto\u2019s NHL squad this season. His $2.4MM cap hit and the Leafs\u2019 flurry of depth forward additions over the summer left him out of a roster spot when training camp ended, and he landed on standard waivers. After clearing, he was assigned to AHL Toronto for his first minor-league action since the 2017-18 season.<\/p>\n

Initially, K\u00e4mpf reported to the Marlies. He suited up for their season-opening back-to-back games but didn\u2019t play again until Oct. 26 and 29. After that, K\u00e4mpf took a brief leave to mull his options for an NHL return, which the Maple Leafs made clear wouldn\u2019t be in Toronto. The Leafs initially looked to find a trade partner<\/a> but were unsuccessful. Soon after, they suspended K\u00e4mpf without pay<\/a> as his leave hit the one-week mark. A mutual contract termination became the clear goal, but there was uncertainty over whether K\u00e4mpf would need to return a prorated portion of the $1.325MM signing bonus he was given before the season as part of the transaction.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s news indicates the NHL and NHLPA have come to a resolution on that front. K\u00e4mpf will now be walking away from the remainder of the $1.075MM base salary he was owed for this season, plus the $2.4MM total compensation he was due in 2026-27.<\/p>\n

His four-year contract with the Leafs came on the heels of a career-best season for K\u00e4mpf, who\u2019d initially joined the franchise on a two-year, $3MM pact in free agency in 2021. The faceoff and penalty-killing specialist had averaged north of 15 minutes per game in his first two seasons in Toronto, didn\u2019t miss a game, and reached 26 and 27 points, respectively. He\u2019d never hit the 20-point threshold before in his career and hasn\u2019t hit it since.<\/p>\n

While still effective on the dot and shorthanded, K\u00e4mpf\u2019s offensive liabilities began to contribute to a decreased role. He saw his ice time slashed by nearly two minutes per game in the first year of his extension, and it was further reduced to 12:29 last year, in which injuries and healthy scratches limited him to 59 appearances. Toronto\u2019s trade deadline pickup of Scott Laughton<\/a>\u00a0from the Flyers pushed him out of the lineup entirely, and he only played in one out of 13 playoff games for the Leafs, so the writing was on the wall long before this season began.<\/p>\n

That said, K\u00e4mpf shouldn\u2019t have much trouble finding a new deal. He has 48 goals and 143 points in 536 career NHL games. Considering he\u2019s only started 31.6% of his shifts at even strength in the offensive zone, his relatively tame -16 rating is indicative of his legitimate defensive skill. He\u2019s not overly physical, averaging under one hit per game for his career, but has a 51.4% lifetime average on draws. If he\u2019s willing to take a deal close to league minimum, he should have a multitude of options. Teams plagued with injuries up front \u2013 the Canucks and Sabres, in particular \u2013 could be among the first to call.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Alan Poizner-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12:58 p.m.:\u00a0The Maple Leafs officially announced K\u00e4mpf\u2019s waiver placement. They\u2019ll clear $1.25MM in cap space tomorrow as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,30892,4247,448,82,746,4584,48340],"class_list":["post-281041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david-kampf","tag-newsstand","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-transactions","tag-waivers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}