Toronto Maple Leafs: Assessing Viable Landing Spots for Patrick Marleau
By Kyle Cushman
Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Kings would be a perfect fit for the Toronto Maple Leafs, except for one glaring issue: The Kings have no cap space.
LA is the closest NHL city to San Jose, the Kings are rebuilding, and they should be looking to weaponize cap space and take advantage of a team close to the ceiling. But thanks to years of mismanagement following their Stanley Cups in 2011 and 2013, the Kings are in cap hell despite living in the basement of the National Hockey League.
Now, Los Angeles’ cap projections come in a little hot thanks to Brendan Leipsic‘s surprisingly high projection of $2.3 million next season. Still, the Kings sit at just under $15 million in cap space today and just over $6 million with their RFA projections.
Unlike most teams, a Toronto-Los Angeles trade would not be in the same vein as most cap dump deals. Instead of a Bryan Bickell and Teuvo Teravainen type trade, look towards a straight swap of bad deals.
The Kings have a multitude of less than ideal contracts. Dion Phaneuf was just bought out, Jeff Carter has fallen off a cliff, while Dustin Brown (three years), Anze Kopitar (five years), and even Drew Doughty‘s (eight years) deals could turn ugly quick.
The name that brings intrigue to the Toronto Maple Leafs would be Ilya Kovalchuk. After returning to North America last summer in a much-hyped signing, Kovalchuk flopped in LA. 16 goals and 34 points in 64 games were nowhere near the expectation, as Kovalchuk was coming off of a 1.19 points-per-game performance in the KHL.
Come season’s end, Kovalchuk suffered an injury and found himself playing fourth line minutes upon return. With two more years and an obvious change of scenery needed, a Marleau-Kovalchuk swap could be an intriguing fit.
From a monetary perspective, Marleau and Kovalchuk both come in at a cap hit of $6.25 million, though Kovalchuk’s runs through the end of the 2020-21 season. As the cap hits exchanged would be a wash, Toronto would need Los Angeles to retain on Kovalchuk’s contract.
Here’s the breakdown if the Kings were to retain 25% of Kovalchuk’s remaining deal in a trade:
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If the Kings were to retain 25%, they would save over $3.5 million in actual dollars. They would be taking a higher cap hit for 2019-20 and a portion into 2020-21, but they would be freeing themselves from a potential distraction in Kovalchuk and replacing him with one of the most well-respected players in the game in Patrick Marleau.
Kovalchuk has a $5.3 million bonus due on July 1, meaning a trade after the start of the new season would actually cost Los Angeles more.
For the Kings, motivation to make this move would come from moving a potential nuisance from the locker room, while also sending the second year of the deal away. They would also save a decent amount of actual dollars.
For Toronto, they would move on from Marleau while also helping their left wing depth. As talented as the Leafs forward group is, the left wing is fairly devoid of talent. Zach Hyman, Andreas Johnsson, Trevor Moore, and Marleau were the left-wingers come playoff time. If Kovalchuk still has scoring prowess left in him, playing on the left side of Auston Matthews and William Nylander or John Tavares and Mitch Marner would certainly get it out of him.
Playing on a terrible Los Angeles team, Ilya Kovalchuk still managed 18 goals. Remember, just over a year ago he was one of the leading scorers in the KHL. A move to Toronto could reignite him playing with a group of young, hungry stars ready to win.
A Kovalchuk-Marleau swap may not save the Toronto Maple Leafs a ton of money ($1.3 million if 25% is retained) but does offer a different proposal Kyle Dubas could be interested in.