David Kämpf's time with the Toronto Maple Leafs may very well be coming to an end, but the situation remains complicated.
After the Maple Leafs suspended the 30-year-old forward without pay earlier this week for leaving their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said Saturday that contract termination is a possibility, but could hit a snag before being finalized.
"He's made it clear he doesn't want to play in the AHL anymore ...," Friedman said during the Saturday Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada. "I have heard one of the issues there is that he received signing bonuses. So there's been a bit of a conversation about if this contract gets terminated and you have to return some of the signing bonus."
Due to the suspension, the Maple Leafs are not currently incurring his $1.25-million buried cap charge while he's in the minors.
Kämpf has another season remaining on the four-year, $9.6-million deal general manager Brad Treliving signed him to in 2023. He’s due a $1.35-million signing bonus on July 1.
The eight-year NHL veteran was waived before the start of the season. He had one assist in four games with the Marlies after posting eight goals and 11 assists in 59 games with the Maple Leafs last season.
Across 536 career NHL games with Toronto and the Chicago Blackhawks, Kämpf has 143 points (48 goals and 95 assists).
"(I) sense that the league and the Players Association are involved in this part of the conversation, and you can guess which side either one of those is on," Friedman continued about the signing bonus debate. "So the hope is that it's going to be sorted out by Monday. But I did hear the idea about, 'should he have to return a chunk of the signing bonus,' was one of the things that prolonged this."
