The contractMaple Leafs sign defenseman Darren Raddysh to an eight-year deal with an $8.5 million AAV.Dom Luszczyszyn: Darren Raddysh’s out-of-nowhere breakout at 30 could not have come at a better time; now he’s cashed in to the tune of $68 million over the next eight years with Toronto.It’s a feel-good story for a lot of reasons. Hometown player gets his big payday, and the Maple Leafs potentially fill their biggest need at the top of their blue line with a defenseman who scored at a near-point-per-game clip last season. Only two Leafs defenders in the modern era have scored at a higher pace than Raddysh did last season: Borje Salming (1977, 1980) and Ian Turnbull (1977). If he can repeat that, Raddysh has potential to be the missing piece as a No. 1 defenseman, and the best option the Leafs have had in that slot in several decades.That “if,” of course, is colossal. The thing with coming out of nowhere is the risk that the player goes back to nowhere. Raddysh has the potential to be exactly what the Leafs have been missing, but the chances of the clock striking midnight on him now that the big check has cleared are far from insignificant. It’s what made Raddysh this year’s biggest boom-or-bust UFA.Raddysh’s contract comes in at nearly the exact midpoint between his value prior to his breakout ($4.8 million) and his current value ($12.4 million) based on last year’s explosion. In that sense, the Leafs navigated the risk as best they could and it feels like a risk they have to take given their glaring hole on the blue line. With the cap going up and Raddysh’s most recent work being so strong, the odds are on Toronto’s side that this will work out — there’s just a ton of variance to that.There is a sense that Raddysh is just a booming slap-shot and not much else, but that underrates all the other fantastic stuff he did last season. In tough minutes, he drove play at five-on-five extremely well and was a gifted puck-mover in all three zones, something the Leafs have been desperately missing for much of the Auston Matthews era. Even if Raddysh’s production regresses, he showcased a lot of tools last season that make it seem like he’ll fit well with the Leafs. Toronto needs a player next to Jake McCabe on the top pair who can actually create with the top line; Raddysh could fit that bill.