Maple Leafs Make Big Decisions on Troy Stecher & Matias Maccelli

With the qualifying offer deadline upon us, and free agency two days away, the Toronto Maple Leafs were busy making a couple of roster decisions on Monday. 
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They've decided that their new-look blueline would continue to include Troy Stecher as a depth piece. The pending UFA was signed to a two-year extension worth $2.7 million ($1.35 million AAV). 

The Leafs claimed Stecher off waivers back in November, and he immediately became an indispensable part of an injury-ravaged blueline. He averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per game over his first couple of months with the team with a plus/minus rating of +10, before his usage slipped into more of a third-pairing or depth role near the end of the season. But he clearly showed enough to stick around, despite the major overhaul of the blueline.  He finished with 14 points in 58 games, with 76 blocked shots. 

The other bit of news sees the Leafs part ways with Matias Maccelli, declining to make him a qualifying offer. The playmaking forward will now head into unrestricted free agency.  

Maccelli was one of the pieces added last summer to fill the offensive void left by the departure of Mitch Marner. Obviously, he wasn't expected to replace Marner, but he just never wound up supplying the sort of playmaking boost that Toronto had hoped for. The 25-year-old finished the season with 39 points in 71 games in 14:34 average ice-time per night.