Toronto Maple Leafs: New Deals, Ratings, Zaitsev, Taxes

The NHL playoffs are underway and, even though they aren’t playing, the Toronto Maple Leafs remain active in the news around the league. Here’s thoughts on five recent pieces of news.

1. Rielly/Kadri Deals

The signings of Morgan Rielly and Nazem Kadri by the Toronto Maple Leafs this week were fantastic. They are both steals and that will be fully apparent very quickly. Had the Leafs went the bridge route with Rielly there’s a very good chance that $5M AAV goes up. This is capology 101. Great team deals for both players.

2. Toronto Maple Leafs & Rogers Declining Views

An article from the National Post focusing on the broadcast ratings being down and correlating significantly with the Canadian teams being horrendous focused on the Leafs being able to win.

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“Whether we like it or not in other parts of the country, the Toronto Maple Leafs drive the value of the hockey broadcast ecosystem,” said Moore. (National Post)

There is obviously some truth in there, but I can tell you why I would rather not watch the broadcasts from the last two seasons as much: the talking heads in front of the cameras. The quality of the broadcast is down from when TSN held the rights and I’d say that’s just as much of a factor in declining viewership. Blame the Leafs, or any other Canadian team, all you want – but how about changing out some analysts.

Here’s hoping the next 10 years aren’t as bad as the first two.

3. Zaitsev And The Leafs Almost Official

It’s all but set in stone at this point. When May 1st rolls around there will probably be an annoucement to make Nikita Zaitsev an official member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Whatever Brendan Shanahan did while Zaitsev was visiting last year made his mind unchangeable. Another one in the win column for the sheriff.

4. Robidas Probably Won’t “Retire”

There is lots of speculation that Robidas’ career is over, and it’s probably true, but I’d be shocked if he actually filed retirement paperwork. Why? Because that would remove flexibility from the Toronto Maple Leafs cap-wise. It also means he can’t sit at home and collect millions of dollars for doing absolutely nothing.

It makes no sense for Robidas to do it from a personal standpoint and it certainly doesn’t seem like something Lou Lamoriello would want to let happen.

5. Leafs vs The Tax Man/Woman

Some great financial insight in an article from the Toronto Sun was posted a couple days ago. The pertaining point is that the lovely province of Ontario destroy’s millionaire hockey players income.

According to sports tax guru Robert Raiola, even if Stamkos is paid $10 million per year he would actually take home less annually by playing in Toronto ($4.3 million after taxes and agent fees) than he would in Tampa Bay for only $8.5 million ($4.6 million). (Toronto Sun)

It’s an interesting point, but I doubt it’s going to influence many future signings for the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is a smart management group that is spending money wisely. Overpaying a player – not necessarily Stamkos, just any player in general – as a bargaining chip in free agency to compensate for taxes isn’t smart cap management.

Money in general isn’t something that concerns the Leafs, but the salary cap is out of their control. At the end of the day, everyone has the same cap ceiling. Do lower taxed teams have an advantage? Sure they do, but so do teams with good direction and a solid off-ice staff.

I also don’t think Stamkos is signing for $8.5M anywhere.