It wasn’t long ago that David Kämpf was sneaky-important to some very good Maple Leaf teams.
Those days appear numbered.
Kämpf spent the summer back home in Czechia, wondering about his future with the team following a postseason that saw him mostly banished to the press box. He figured a trade would come, that his time as a Leaf was probably over.
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It didn’t happen.
“I was thinking about (a trade) for sure,” Kämpf said on a windy day this fall. “I was ready for whatever could come, but nothing happened, so I’m here and I’m ready to show my best.”
Whether his best will be enough to keep him around remains uncertain.
Kämpf is clearly on the outside of head coach Craig Berube’s projected lineup again this fall. He’s been replaced by Scott Laughton in the middle of the fourth line, as well as on the penalty kill, just as he was in the playoffs last spring.
Even his roster spot is suddenly in jeopardy.
“It’s up to management if I fit this team or not,” the 30-year-old Kämpf said. “I will bring my best and we’ll see if it’s enough or not.”
The story of Kämpf’s undoing with the Leafs isn’t unusual in the world of professional sports.
“I didn’t play at the end, so I lost my role, I would say,” is how he describes the end of the 2024-25 season, his fourth with the team.
What happened more broadly is that a new coach came in (Berube) and didn’t see the same use for the player as his predecessor (Sheldon Keefe).
That was clear on day one last season when Kämpf was dropped from his longtime duties on the Leafs’ No. 1 penalty-killing unit (and replaced, for a short spell, by Pontus Holmberg). His deployment in the kind of defensive combat that made him so valuable, at times, under Keefe, disappeared.
Kämpf’s ice time dipped.
Some nights, he didn’t even garner 10 minutes from Berube, who prefers a harder, heavier style than Kämpf can offer.
Then, weeks before the playoffs, Kämpf suffered an injury. When he returned, his spot in the lineup was gone. Laughton had found his way into the middle of the fourth line after struggling to find a fit elsewhere following a trade from Philadelphia.
The Leafs no longer believe they need Kämpf like they used to.
Not like in the 2022 playoffs, when a Kämpf-led line led the team to a Game 3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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“He gives you everything that he has,” Keefe said of Kämpf that night, following a performance which saw his line, with Pierre Engvall and Ilya Mikheyev, dig their way out of seemingly every defensive zone faceoff that was thrown their way, often against Tampa’s top players. “He’s just an ultimate team player that knows who he is and knows how he can help influence the game.”
Could he still be that player for the Leafs? It’s unlikely with Berube running the bench. All the more so now that Laughton seems to have found his best footing in Kämpf’s old digs.
“It was a little tough for me at the end,” Kämpf said of last season, which saw him appear in just one playoff game. “I was thinking about it a lot. I just tried to get better, like every summer.”
He did what he could to get a little quicker and a little stronger, eschewing unhealthy food — like usual — with the odd exception of his only cheat meal: Sea salt-flavoured potato chips.
“I think I have pretty good discipline,” Kämpf said. “It’s not a big deal for me.”
Is it possible that Laughton’s stewardship of the fourth line falters and requires Kämpf to move back into the middle? Or that a penalty kill that lost its top forward in the offseason requires a dose of Kämpf’s know-how?
Impossible? No. Unlikely? It’s looking that way.
Kämpf may never regain his usefulness to the Leafs, which was on the decline at the end of Keefe’s tenure. His place not just in the lineup but on the team may be in jeopardy, what with Easton Cowan in line to make the NHL squad.
A roster spot may be required to make room.
Berube raved about the return of a healthy Calle Järnkrok the other day. Järnkrok has value as a backup for Cowan next to Laughton and Steven Lorentz on that fourth line.
The Leafs could trade or waive Nick Robertson, though they may still, despite everything, want to keep him around as scoring insurance.
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Though Kämpf has value too as depth at centre ice, the front office may believe they can slip him through waivers. Kämpf’s contract, which has another year left after this one at $2.4 million on the cap, is just large enough to be unattractive, which could mean a stint with the Marlies for Kämpf.
That or the trade that seemed like a sure thing this past summer.
“I think I can still bring something to the team,” Kämpf said. “For sure, I want to play. If I will not be playing, we’ll see what (else) we can do.”
(Top photo: Jaylynn Nash / Getty Images)
