How Can the Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Marner and Gardiner?

The Toronto Maple Leafs are yet to sign Mitch Marner.

Mitch Marner is going to be a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, we just do not know for how long or how much.  I think it would be one of the most shocking things ever if Marner and the Leafs didn’t eventually agree to a deal.

Additionally, it has long been rumoured that the Leafs want to bring back Jake Gardiner, and Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons throw some more wood on that fire today.

The star defenseman, who is one of the greatest blue-liners in Leafs history, reportedly wants to return to the Leafs, and obviously if they can fit him in under the cap, the Leafs would want him back.

Whether or not it can actually happen is up to some debate.

Toronto Maple Leafs Salary Cap

Thanks to the ingenious trade to bring back David Clarkson, the Leafs are currently maxed out on their salary cap.

They can, however, exceed the cap by 10% which would be about $8.1 million dollars.

Additionally, if you have players who are injured, you can get the majority of their cap hit back and use it until they are healthy.  The Leafs can get back money from the contracts of Clarkson, Horton, Hyman and Dermott, which is roughly $14 million dollars. (Capfriendly.com).

So if they wanted to fit in Marner and pay Gardiner about $5 or $6 million, it’s certainly possible, depending on what Marner makes.

The Leafs salary situation is complicated because they’ve got so many one-million dollar players, and we have no clue really, who will and won’t be on the opening night roster.  Players who don’t make it can be waived or demoted, and only in some cases will their salaries still count.

Without getting overly complicated or imagining various scenarios, suffice to say that the Leafs do have some flexibility and some ability to manipulate the cap within the rules.

While Steve Simmons suggested they might trade Andreas Johnsson or Kasperi Kapanen, that is, frankly, ridiculous.  Both players look to return insane amounts of value on their recently signed team-friendly deals.  Both players have top line potential, and moving either of them at this point would be surprising.

The obvious players to move if necessary are Cody Ceci, who makes $4.5 million, and Zach Hyman, who makes $2.25.  Both players would bring back assets without largely affecting the team.

In the case of Ceci, it’s a no-brainer.  In the case of Hyman, no sane person would choose him over Johnson or Kapanen, while Jeremy Bracco, Trevor Moore or Ilya Mikheyv are all available to replace him in the lineup.

Yeah of course Hyman plays the right way yadda yadda, but the Leafs don’t seem to care, so I don’t think it matters.

Either way, if the Leaf are interested in bringing back Jake Gardiner, they’ve got tons of options to make it work.