The David Kampf era with the Toronto Maple Leafs appears to be coming to a close.
According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, in a post on X: “Expect David Kampf to be placed on waivers today for purpose of termination of contract. So, if he clears waivers tomorrow he can sign with another NHL club.”
The 30-year-old has been mulling over his future for the last week or so after beginning the regular season with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. He was suspended without pay during that time.
Kampf was placed on waivers at the beginning of the year and cleared, thus allowing Toronto to send the forward to the AHL. He played four games with the Marlies, tallying one assist in that span. His last game with the club was on Oct. 29 against the Syracuse Crunch.
Kampf signed a four-year, $9.6 million contract with the Maple Leafs in June 2023. This was the third year of that contract, and with him down in the AHL, Toronto still had $1.25 million of his contract on its salary cap (it disappeared while he took a leave from the Marlies).
The most recent reporting on the situation, from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, was that Toronto and Kampf’s side were possibly working through clawback language within Kampf’s contract.
“There is in some contracts something called clawback language, and it allows the team to seek the return of a signing bonus if the player terminates the deal,” Friedman reported. “And if you’re wondering why it’s there, it’s kind of obvious…
“I have heard return of the signing bonus has come up in the middle of this. So I am thinking that either the Maple Leafs said, ‘Hey, there’s clawback language here and we’re going to enforce it.’ Or the league has said, ‘Hey, there’s language here that we want you to enforce.'”
Friedman added that the language protects the team from a player quitting once the signing bonus is paid out and gives the team a route to seek a return. It remains unknown if that was the case in Thursday’s decision to waive Kampf for the purposes of contract termination.
In 301 games with the Maple Leafs, Kampf scored 31 goals and 85 points.
Artemi Panarin is beginning to shake off his early season struggles.
With a newly shaven head, the star Russian wing has posted nine points — three goals and six assists — in the last four games after assisting on four goals in the Rangers’ 7-3 win over the Lightning on Wednesday night at Benchmark International Arena.
Just like that, Panarin leads the Rangers in points (16).
“I think when he’s at his best, the puck follows him around,” head coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday after an optional morning skate. “He finds a way to have it a lot. I thought the last game he had it a lot. There are probably a number of reasons for that, but that’s what the game looks like when he’s at his best. I think he’s a threat off the rush. I think he has an uncanny ability to delay or slow the play down and allow the rush to go by him and then create opportunity. I think he’s getting better as far as supporting the play in the offensive zone. We’re trying to encourage him to be a little bit closer to his linemates, and I think he’s doing a better job there.
“I thought his line had more offensive zone time. I think that line has the ability to create offense in a number of different ways. They’re going to be dangerous off the rush because they’re talented, but they can build that grind game and they can be dangerous there also, because they’re talented. But that takes collective effort there, and that’s where we’re trying to help them. But I thought the line in general had a strong game last game.”
Artemi Panarin battles Jake Guentzel for the puck during the Rangers’ 7-3 blowout road win over the Lightning on Nov. 12, 2025.
Despite looking rather disconnected through the first few weeks of the season, Panarin has collected four multipoint games through the first 18 contests — including one three-point game and two four-point efforts.
The Rangers have a record ofare 4-0 every time Panarin has collected multiple points in a game this season.
“My confidence [is] OK now,” Panarin said after his two-goal effort on Monday against the Predators. “Better than before.”
Igor Shesterkin saved 33 of the 36 shots he faced in his sixth win of the season.
In a move he said was largely due to matchups, Sullivan shifted Will Cuylle up to play with J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad toward the end of the second period and through the third.
“[Lightning coach Jon Cooper] wanted that match with [Nikita] Kucherov, [Jake] Guentzel and Brayden Point,” Sullivan said. “We just felt like that’s a tall task for a young kid [Gabe Perreault] that hasn’t played a whole lot in the league. If that was going to be the match, we thought it made more sense to have a guy like Will play with J.T. and Mika in that circumstance. Some of it was just based on the feel of the game, but some of it was just from a matchup strategy standpoint.”
The Rangers signed Spencer Martin to a two-year contract Wednesday before putting the 30-year-old goalie on waivers. If he clears, Martin will be assigned to Hartford.
Appearing in nine games for the Hurricanes last season, Martin posted a 3-4-1 record with an .846 save percentage and a 3.89 goals-against average.