Maple Leafs RFA Signings: Tverberg and Quillan Re-Sign as Villeneuve Becomes the Last Man Standing

Toronto Clears Its Restricted Free Agent List — Almost

The Maple Leafs' RFA signings are down to the final name. Toronto re-signed forwards Ryan Tverberg and Jacob Quillan to one-year, two-way contracts over the past few days, leaving defenceman William Villeneuve as the only qualified restricted free agent still without a deal. It is quiet, unglamorous roster housekeeping — the kind of work that never trends — but it is exactly the sort of cost-controlled depth management John Chayka has leaned on all summer.

Both new deals are reported to carry an $850,000 salary at the NHL level, with two-way structures that pay a fraction of that in the American Hockey League. Tverberg's contract reportedly guarantees $350,000; Quillan's is said to guarantee $375,000 and comes with arbitration rights when it expires. Neither number moves the needle on Toronto's cap sheet, which is precisely the point. These are the deals that keep a bottom-six and a farm team stocked without eating into the money Chayka still needs for a bigger swing.

Ryan Tverberg Cashes In a Calder Cup Summer

Tverberg, 24, is coming off the best stretch of his professional life. A seventh-round pick from 2020 who spent years as an afterthought on prospect lists, he broke through with career highs in the regular season and then poured in 14 points across 24 games during the Marlies' run to the 2026 Calder Cup. That is a genuine playoff producer on an entry-level-money contract, and Toronto was never going to let him walk to a rival for the price of a qualifying offer.

The one-year term matters. Tverberg is not being handed a roster spot; he is being handed a runway. If he pushes into the NHL bottom-six out of camp, the $850,000 number is one of the cheapest fourth-line tickets in hockey. If he opens in the AHL again, he is an experienced, cup-tested leader for a Marlies group that just proved it can win. Either outcome is a value for a team scraping every dollar against the ceiling.

There is also a fit question that makes Tverberg more than a throw-in. He kills penalties, he forechecks with pace, and he has grown into a right-handed centre who can slide to the wing — exactly the versatility Jim Hiller's staff will want at the back of the lineup. A player who can plug three or four different holes on a given night is worth more to a cap-strapped roster than a one-dimensional specialist making twice as much.

Jacob Quillan Keeps His Development on Track

Quillan's re-signing follows the same logic. The 24-year-old centre, a college free-agent prize when Toronto landed him out of Quinnipiac, took another AHL step this season and, importantly, chose not to file for salary arbitration before the July 5 deadline. That kept the negotiation friendly and the term short. He gets a one-year, two-way deal and retains arbitration eligibility down the line, which protects his leverage without forcing a hearing nobody wanted.

For Toronto, Quillan is organizational centre depth at a position the club has spent all offseason trying to fortify. Chayka added Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger and Jack Roslovic in free agency and traded for Nick Paul, but middle-of-the-ice bodies never stop being useful over an 82-game grind. Quillan is insurance you are happy to never need.

His college pedigree is part of the appeal. Quillan captained Quinnipiac to a national championship before turning pro, and that kind of winning résumé is exactly what Chayka's front office has prioritized when filling out the depth chart. A cheap, coachable centre who has already learned how to win big games is a low-risk bet, and the two-way structure means Toronto carries none of the downside if he stalls.

Why the July 5 Arbitration Deadline Mattered

The timing here is not an accident. RFAs eligible for salary arbitration had to file by 5 p.m. ET on July 5, and the hearing window runs from July 20 through August 1. Getting Tverberg and Quillan signed around that date took two potential hearings off the board and let Toronto's front office keep its attention on the trade market rather than a courtroom.

Arbitration is a blunt instrument for both sides. It can force term and dollars a team would rather set on its own timeline, and it can sour a young player's first real negotiation. By closing these two out cleanly, Chayka avoided the distraction entirely. The tidy handling of the RFA class is a small tell about how this front office prefers to operate: settle the easy stuff early, save the fight for the deals that actually shape the roster.

William Villeneuve Is the Domino Still Standing

That leaves Villeneuve. The 24-year-old right-shot defenceman was qualified and remains arbitration-eligible, and he has the strongest case of any Marlies graduate for real NHL minutes next season. He finished second in Marlies playoff scoring with 16 points in 19 games during the Calder Cup run, a huge number for a defenceman, and he has spent two full pro seasons rounding out a game that was always long on puck-moving and offensive instinct.

Villeneuve's situation is different from the other two because the stakes are higher. He is knocking on the door of an NHL job, not just a depth contract, and Toronto's right side is crowded after the summer's additions. His next deal — whether it comes through a straightforward negotiation or an arbitration hearing later this month — will say something about how the Leafs value him relative to the veterans ahead of him. Our projected 2026-27 lineup shows just how tight that blue line has become.

The likeliest outcome is still a quiet, short-term bridge deal that gets done before the hearing window opens. Filing for arbitration does not force a hearing; plenty of cases settle in the days between the filing deadline and the scheduled date. But if Toronto and Villeneuve's camp cannot agree on a number, an arbitrator's ruling would set a one- or two-year price the Leafs may not love. Given how little cap room the club has, even a modest raise here is a line item worth watching.

The Cap Backdrop Behind the Small Print

None of this happens in a vacuum. Toronto is pressed hard against — and by most public estimates, over — the projected salary cap ceiling for 2026-27, which is why every dollar of these two-way deals was scrutinized. You can track the running math on our contracts page, but the short version is that Chayka still needs to shed money before opening night, and the most likely mechanism remains a Morgan Rielly trade.

Cheap, controllable contracts like Tverberg's and Quillan's are the counterweight to that pressure. Every bottom-of-the-roster job filled at league minimum is a job Chayka does not have to solve with cap space he does not have. It is not exciting, but it is how a capped-out contender keeps its books flexible enough to make a summer's worth of bigger moves — the kind detailed in our look at the roster Chayka has built.

What's Next

The Villeneuve deal is the last piece of RFA business, and it should get done — either at the table in the coming days or, at the latest, through an arbitration hearing before August 1. Once it is settled, Toronto's restricted free-agent slate is closed and the front office can turn its full attention to the cap-clearing trade everyone expects.

For now, the Maple Leafs' RFA signings tell a consistent story. Chayka is building depth the way a cap-strapped team has to: cheaply, on short term, and with a Calder Cup-winning farm system doing a lot of the heavy lifting. The stars get the headlines. Deals like these are what let a team afford them.