John Chayka parts ways with promising young forward in surprising move

The Toronto Maple Leafs will not give Matias Maccelli a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent, according to PuckEmpire, citing Chris Johnston.

It's a quiet ending to a season that never really got going for the 25 year old winger.

Maccelli put up 39 points in 71 games this year, with 14 goals and 25 assists. He also finished at a minus-23 rating.

That's not a complementary-piece line. That number jumps off the page on a team that finished 28th in the league.

Toronto went 32-36-14 this season, sitting dead last in the Atlantic Division with a minus-46 goal differential. Maccelli's minus-23 alone accounts for half of that team-wide collapse.

His finish wasn't pretty either. Over his last 10 games, Maccelli managed zero goals and four assists, going minus-7 in that stretch.

Carrying a cap hit of $3,425,000, Maccelli simply didn't produce enough to justify a renewal at that price for a franchise desperate to clean up its books.

Why letting Maccelli walk says more about Toronto's roster than his numbers

This is the kind of move that tells you where a front office's head is at. When a team eats a minus-46 differential and finishes 28th overall, nobody's job is safe, not even a 39-point scorer.

Maccelli was acquired to bring offensive zip from the wing, and there were flashes. But flashes don't survive a 36-loss season when the price tag climbs.

Letting him hit unrestricted free agency instead of even a one-year bridge deal is a clear signal. Toronto wants out from under depth pieces that aren't moving the needle.

It's a defensible call given the goal differential, but it's also a bit of a gamble. Maccelli's underlying skill set hasn't disappeared, it just never found the right matchup in Toronto.

Now it's on another general manager to decide whether a change of scenery flips that minus-23 back into a positive. The Leafs, for their part, are moving on without a backward glance.