The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to have a busy offseason.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have already signed several prospects, let a couple go back to the draft, signed their annual Swedish player, hired a new GM, hired two new assistant GMs (Pridham and Gilman) and lost both Mark Hunter and Lou Lamoriello.
And it’s not even June.
For the rest of the off season, the Leafs will have to decide about their pending UFAs (Bozak, JVR, Komarov, Placanek), they will have to sign Nylander (and probably Marner and Matthews), upgrade their defense, pick a captain, go to the draft, and navigate free agency.
And if you want to have even the first clue of how all this may or may not go down, you’re going to need some information. Editor in Leaf has got you covered.
Toronto Maple Leafs Off-Season Primer
Note: All Cap Related Information from Capfriendly.com
Positional Needs: Defensive Forwards, Centres (one or two), Right-Side defense, especially a defensively sound puck mover a la Mark Psysyk, Jason Demers, Chris Tanev, Brett Pesce etc.
Restricted Free Agents: William Nylander, Connor Carrick, Miro Aaltonen, Andreas Johnson, Frederik Gauthier, Calvin Pickard, Justin Holl, Kasmir Kasmisuo, Martin Marincin.
Un-Restricted Free Agents: Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk, Leo Komarov, Tomas Plakanec, Dominic Moore, Roman Polak , Colin Greening, Ben Smith, Kyle Baun.
Draft Picks: First Round (25) Second Round (52, from San Jose), (Leafs original second round pick, 56, to Montreal for Plekanec) Third Round (83 from San Jose), (Leafs original third round pick, 87, to Chicago, via Washington and New Jersey, originally traded for Lou Lamoriello). Leafs also have a 4th, 5th, and 2 x 7ths.
Salary Cap Information:
The Current Salary Cap is $75 Million. Last year the NHL didn’t announce how much the cap would be going up by until June 18. No one knows what the cap will be next year, and the following numbers are based on that. However, in December, Gary Bettman announced that the cap would be between $78 and $82 million, a raise of three to seven million.
But again, keep in mind that the following numbers are based on the current cap.
Money Committed for Next Year: $52, 657, 500
Salary Cap Space: $22, 342, 500 (so between $25-30 Million available)
Contracts: 35 – teams can have up to 50
Robidas Island Candidates: Ron Hainsey, 1 year left @3 Million, no trade clause.
Injured Reserve: Nathan Horton – 2 more years @ $5.2 (LTIR, cap-hit doesn’t count).
Next: Who Wore It Best: Nylander or Marner?
No Trade Clauses: Marleau, Hainsey, Kadri, Andersen
Retained Salary: Phil Kessel $1.2 million x 4 more years.
That is about all the information you need to know about the Toronto Maple Leafs off-seaon. Once again, the vast majority of this information is from Capfriendly.com Other information from the CBC, NHL.Com, NHLdb and my own brain.