Why Would the Toronto Maple Leafs Cut 4 Players and Play Short-Handed?

The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to get a few players back from the injured reserve.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have started the year without Zach Hyman, Travis Dermott and (more recently) have also been without John Tavares.

While people act like they’re some kind of disappointment, they’ve literally got three core players sitting in the press box every night.

Four if you consider that, thanks to an absolutely preposterous schedule, they’ve played three sets of back-to-back games (3 of 11) so far, and that means Andersen has had to sit out for over 25% of their games so far.  (Improbably, they play another set tonight and tomorrow).

I’m not hear to offer up very legitimate reasons for the team’s recent performance, but rather to discuss what happens when their injured players come back.

Salary Cap Problems

Travis Dermott is still on an ELC, so Kevin Gravel can be sent to the minors to make room for him.  Grevel has already cleared waivers, so no big deal.

Tavares never went on the LTIR, but someone has to leave to make room for him on the roster.

It is Zach Hyman’s $2.25 million cap hit that is going to be the problem because it will take two of the cheaper players leaving to make room for him.

Most people in the media are saying that the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to drop four players from their lineup and play short-handed in order to get Hyman back. They aren’t arguing if this is the right move, they’re arguing which four players it should be. 

You can’t play long without a full roster, and there are obvious solutions to this which don’t involve cutting a bunch of players, therefore I think the above linked article is wrong.

There is supposedly a salary cap work-around that might get the Leafs a break if they play one game under the roster limit, but while that may be true, I’m going to ignore it because it’s not a long-term solution, even if it does end up buying them time to figure something out.

Instead of discussing options, people are just discussing which three players are going to go.  We know Nic Petan is available thanks to last week’s Hockey Night in Canada, and we know they probably don’t care if they lose Spezza or Shore if it comes to it.

But that doesn’t mean they want to play short handed, and in fact doing so would be kind of dumb.

The Leafs might not be able to work something out right away, so maybe they will have to just risk a few guys on waivers and play shorthanded.

But if they aren’t actively working the phones to fix this for real, I’d be shocked.

I don’t care how rare right handed defenseman are, Cody Ceci is a horrible top line player, and it’s incompetent to play him this high in the lineup.

I am no Babcock apologist, but I respect him enough to assume he’ll play Dermott over Ceci, at least after Dermott gets his feet under him and is back up to game speed.

The obvious move here is to dump Cody Ceci onto another team.  Teams recently gave bizarre free agent deals to Tyler Myers and traded for Jack Johnson. There is a 100% chance another team will take on the Ceci contract, and if the Leafs get a 7th rounder, they’ve turned a profit.

Those saying that Ceci can’t be traded, or that the Leafs would have to pay to make it happen are vastly over-estimating the capabilities of most NHL GMs.

Justin Holl is  – at the absolute worst – interchangeable with Ceci for $3.5 million in savings.  Likely, he’s much better.

Martin Marincin is also just as good, if not better.

Travis Dermott and Rasmus Sandin can both play the right side. Both are significantly better.

All four of these players would likely end up being the best partner Morgan Rielly has ever had. (Unless you count random sometimes pairings with Jake Gardiner).

Why would the Toronto Maple Leafs cut four players when if they trade Cody Ceci, all they have to do is demote Kevin Gravel, who has already cleared waivers? Trading Ceci means they improve their top pairing, it means they keep three other more valuable players, don’t have to play short-handed, and have space under the cap.

There is no downside to this move.

The fact is, you’d have to be blind to think Cody Ceci is a good option as a #2 defenseman, and the Leafs are too smart to keep him around and chop off several depth players when there’s an obvious solution staring them in the face.