Garland Becomes Leafs First Max Player

Conor Garland is set to keep his home address in Toronto for five more years.

The Maple Leafs made history on Thursday when they announced the team's very first max contract player.  Conor Garland, who suited up in all 82 games for the Maple Leafs last season and recorded 17 goals and 28 points for the blue-and-white won't be moving anytime soon.

"Well, it's a good thing I look good in blue" said Garland with a sly smile during a press conference in front of fans and media on Thursday.  "It means the world to me coming to this rink every day, being around these guys, working towards bringing the Stanley Cup back to Toronto."  The 28 year old winger knows exactly what it takes to win the Stanley Cup, having lifted the sacred chalice with the Florida Panthers during his three years there.

"I knew when I came here I was joining a good team, and we had some bumps this past year, but to see what Clayton is doing since coming in, how's he's reshaping this team, what we can accomplish, it made me excited to come back and my only remaining wish is that the season started tomorrow." 

Garland, who spent time up and down the lineup last year, earned the admiration of the newly appointed general manager only days after taking the job.  "Conor's been great every step of the way," expressed Leafs big-boss Clayton Hansler.  "It's obviously one of those things where I got in here only days before the draft, had to meet with our scouts, find a way to get them a couple picks. Obviously brought in Chyc'y to add some dimension to our back end, and then start calling and meeting with the guys to get a sense of what we have here.  Right away, I knew Conor was a guy we needed to keep.  Everything everyone said was positive.  Then Conor met me for lunch, we had a couple laughs, talked about our mutual love of the Boss, and knew it was simply a formality getting the deal done."

"Yeah, he certainly is a chatty one," Garland says laughing.  "We went for lunch, I thought it was going to be an hour — 90 minutes max — and we sat around talking for like three hours.  I had [my wife] Meg texting me wondering if I had gone over to Johnny's [Tavares] or something after becuase i still wasn't home."

Garland's deal is a five year, $27 million dollar contract that will see the wingman bring home $5.4 million per year.  A deal similar to what Jake DeBrusk signed earlier, putting them both in the upper echelon's of the league's best middle-six players.

"Yeah, we just had to get it done" Hansler shared. "I think we opened up the wallet because we wanted him here and he took a bit of a haircut becuase he wanted to be here. I think everyone leaves happy and ready to get to work."

Where exactly the 28 year old factors into the lineup is still a mystery.  Head coach Joel Quennville was mysteriously missing from Thursday's press conference, though an instagram post from his grandson showed him fly fishing in southwestern Ontario.  It's speculated that Garland will slot into the second line, but his abilities make him an overpowered addition on the disrubptive third grouping as well.  I guess we'll have to wait until camp opens to know for sure.

Until then, Clayton Hansler alluded to more announcements on the horizon as he works the phones during free agency.