Don’t Fret Over the Toronto Maple Leafs Cap Crunch

The Toronto Maple Leafs are entering an era with continued struggles of staying under the cap ceiling, in which they welcome with open arms.

With Mitch Marner’s contract stalemate finally taken care of, the Toronto Maple Leafs can finally focus solely on hockey and not have any anguish over having to get the core players a new deal for the next half-decade.

In theory, it would be logical to think that the fanbase will follow suit and get ramped up for the upcoming season. After all, the projected roster appears to be the most balanced in quite some time.

In reality, this is partially true but with a significant emphasis of fear and dread over how the team will be able to keep everyone around under the salary cap and if it’s even a possibility.

Let’s not beat around the bush here: the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be tight on cap space for the foreseeable future and there’s nothing we can do to change that. In fact, the team is more than happy to embrace this challenge because that is what top contending clubs have to deal with on a yearly basis.

Kyle Dubas

There is a reason the team chose Kyle Dubas to be the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs a little over a year ago. He has a proven track record of unearthing hidden talent and filling out the edges with overlooked players which have led to success everywhere he’s been.

While his tenure as Leafs GM has only just begun, his fingerprints are beginning to be more visible following an offseason of sweeping changes. Previously unknown commodities such as Trevor Moore and Justin Holl have made it up to the NHL ranks, while recent top picks in Rasmus Sandin and Nicholas Robertson appear to be on the NHL trajectory within a few years time.

Additionally, the team was able to acquire Tyson Barrie’s salary at a retained rate which should bring back immense value this coming year. But adding it meant giving up Nazem Kadri’s sweetheart deal to the Colorado Avalanche.

That’s the reality of how Toronto will have to conduct trades that address team needs. If they want to acquire such a talent, a valuable asset needs to go the other way.

As a consequence of the salary cap situation, you can expect the team’s free-agent frenzy to amas players signed to short, league minimum deals. Meaning players like Tyler Ennis, Kenny Agostino, Nick Shore, and Pontus Aberg will be the kind of names to expect being added each offseason. It also means the likes of Nic Petan acquired in trades either during the season or at the deadline.

Dubas should be more than willing to make these types of transactions more often for the foreseeable future, so don’t expect many John Tavares-esque signings or Barrie-esque trades from Toronto anytime soon.

Brendan Pridham

When it comes to how the Leafs can manage their salary structure on a yearly basis, there is one man that is more than qualified to fill this role. Having Brendan Pridham as assistant G.M. is such a huge asset for the team to possess.

He was, after all, one of the people that helped draft the CBA back in 2012, so he knows a thing or two about how to work around the salary cap. Because of this, he has played a large role in many of the team’s transactions over the past few years. The most recent one being the re-acquiring of David Clarkson’s contract from the Vegas Golden Knights back in July.

For this season, he will have a lot of knots to untangle in order for Toronto to remain under the salary cap. While the first month of the season should present minimal headaches, the returns of Travis Dermott and Zach Hyman from injury will force the team into having to either send two players to the minors or make a trade.

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Photo from CapFriendly.com

As a result of this, we could potentially be looking at a 21-man roster at full strength that would end up being over $1 million above the cap. With that being the case, you can expect a lot of roster transactions throughout the year either through recalls or minor trades to keep the Toronto Maple Leafs from being forced by the league to lose an asset.

And we haven’t even gotten to all of the PTO signings currently at training camp or the 50-man roster limit. The point is, Pridham has a strong understanding of the CBA and should be a key resource in keeping the team’s cap crunch to a minimum.

The Big Four

As previously mentioned, the Big Four contracts are officially locked up with Marner’s deal completed on Friday night. Alongside the Tavares, Auston Matthews, and William Nylander contracts, they all combine for $40.5 million in salary or approximately 49.7% of the Leafs cap space (!).

If that sounds like unprecedented numbers, it’s because they are. An NHL team has yet to a Stanley Cup with a player making over $10 million a season, let alone three of them. It’s easy to feel discouraged by the notion that Toronto will never be able to remain competitive long-term due to the large financial commitment made to roughly 18% of the roster.

On the plus side, this isn’t a predicament that the Leafs put themselves in because of a lack of awareness. They invested heavily in four players who are either entering their prime or in the middle of it. It’s a good problem to have because even with the Marner deal being an overpayment, at least he is an elite-forward and not a fringe player past his peak performance.

It’s not like the team has absolutely no talent surrounding the core because the key secondary pieces are locked up to team-friendly deals. So be thankful the likes of Morgan Rielly, Frederik Andersen, Zach Hyman, Kasperi Kapanen, and Andreas Johnsson signed to their respective deals when they did. Had one of these contracts been to a higher value, there’s a strong chance one of the big-four players would not be on the roster today.

Because of this, the Toronto Maple Leafs have to trade away albatross contracts like Nikita Zaitsev, Patrick Marleau, and Connor Brown to help them remain competitive. It also means letting go players such as Ron Hainsey and Jake Gardiner due to the struggle of keeping everyone in the fold. This is going to be the new norm for the Leafs each summer due to them being at the salary cap.

Which is why having Nylander signed to a $6.9 million AAV has proven to be a critical component in how all four deals were able to fit together. He no doubt took a huge sacrifice in his statistical results due to signing on December 1st, but the decision to holdout the first two months of the 2018-19 season has proven to be a lucky break in hindsight.

So while we are just beginning to see how much Marner, Nylander, and Matthew’s new cap hits impact the franchise’s decision-making going forward, we are also beginning a new era of heightened expectations. This core could very easily end the drought or disappoint in the playoffs each passing year. At least this will all occur during the prime of the big-four career’s and not at the tail end of it.

In the meantime, Toronto Maple Leafs fans should be less worried about dealing with the cap crunch and how the team can keep Rielly, Andersen, Muzzin, and Barrie around long-term. Instead, the focus should be on the on-ice results since they will be standing witness a Cup-contending team for the next few years.

If there’s anyone who should be fixated on dealing with the cap crunch, it will be the Toronto Maple Leafs management team hired to deal with plights such as this. A challenge they are more than willing to undertake.

All salary numbers are from Cap Friendly.