The Maple Leafs have suspended center David Kämpf without pay for departing their AHL affiliate while on assignment, PuckPedia reports. As such, the $1.25MM cap charge Kämpf incurred while in the minors is temporarily struck from their books until the situation is resolved.
Recently, there was talk of a potential mutual contract termination between Kämpf and the Leafs. The 30-year-old has not suited up for Toronto this season after clearing waivers and heading to the minors late in training camp. He initially accepted the assignment, but the defensive specialist only registered one assist and a -1 rating in four games before leaving the team late last month. Today, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported there’s been “pushback” against a contract termination.
That’s not particularly surprising. Doing so would mean Kämpf walking away from the remainder of his $1.075MM salary for this season, plus the $1.325MM signing bonus and $1.075MM base salary he’s owed for 2026-27 before he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He’s only just past the halfway point of the four-year, $9.6MM extension he signed with Toronto in 2023.
Others have taken the contract termination approach in the past few years, most notably Brandon Saad, Conor Sheary, and Filip Zadina, in order to remove their albatross contract as an obstacle toward returning to an everyday NHL role. In the vast majority of cases, it’s worked out, at least in terms of the player being able to find an everyday role again. Recouping the money they surrender by doing so doesn’t always happen, though.
It’s not as if Kämpf is completely dead weight. He’s still a serviceable fourth-line piece who can contribute two-plus minutes a game shorthanded. He did fall out of a regular role on a deeper Toronto forward group last season, though. His 59 appearances in 2024-25 were his lowest since the COVID-shortened 2021 season, and he scored five goals and 13 assists with a -1 rating. He’s 51.4% on faceoffs for his career, and while he doesn’t have a history of strong possession impacts, he started over 70% of his shifts in the defensive zone at even strength in all of his four years as a Maple Leaf so far.