Claude Giroux picked home over money, and the Toronto Maple Leafs came up short again.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen reported that Toronto offered Giroux the biggest contract of any team in free agency, and it still wasn't enough.
Elliotte Friedman backed that up on 32 Thoughts, saying Toronto might have actually bid the most money of anyone in the mix.
Giroux instead re-signed with Ottawa on a one-year deal worth $2,000,000, with performance bonuses that could push it as high as $3,000,000 more.
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Edmonton, Philadelphia and reportedly Montreal were all in the mix too, but none of them could pull him away from Ottawa either.
The 38-year-old put up 49 points in 82 games last season, adding a plus-20 rating and winning well over 60 percent of his faceoffs.
Garrioch's reporting lays out exactly why this one stung, and Toronto wasn't even the only team left empty-handed.
Toronto's growing pattern of free agency near misses
Marchment signed with San Jose, Jenner landed in Washington, and Maccelli found a deal elsewhere, leaving Toronto with a string of near misses up front.
GM John Chayka has stayed busy regardless, adding Brandon Duhaime, Teddy Blueger, Colton Sissons, Sergei Bobrovsky, Jack Roslovic and Darren Raddysh this summer.
Toronto finished 32-36-14 for 78 points last season and closed on a seven-game losing streak, exactly the kind of finish that makes every single miss like this one sting harder.
Giroux is heading into what's expected to be his final season after 15 years in Philadelphia and four with Ottawa, and he wanted that last chapter close to home.
Giroux would have solved a real faceoff problem for a Toronto team that badly needed one.
Instead, he gets one last season close to home, and Toronto goes looking for its answer somewhere else.
Should the Maple Leafs have offered Claude Giroux even more money?
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