During the first week of December, both Petr Mrazek and Ilya Mikheyev are expected to return from their injuries and join the Toronto Maple Leafs.
I’ve seen a few Toronto Maple Leafs fans questioning how the team will manage their cap space to make room for these returning players.
The Leafs are close to the cap ceiling as it is, and with these players returning, some fans are making their best predictions at what trades the team will make to get them out of this predicament.
Players like Justin Holl and Travis Dermott are swirling around the rumour mill while others think it will be Pierre Engvall or the underachieving Nick Ritchie or trade rumour favourite Alex Kerfoot who gets axed from the team.
Here’s the easiest way for the Toronto Maple Leafs to work their salary cap:
How the Toronto Maple Leafs will Work Cap when Mikheyev & Mrazek Return
Let’s take a look at everyone’s favourite salary cap info site, CapFriendly.com
The salary cap ceiling is $81.5 million.
According to CapFriendly, the Toronto Maple Leafs are currently spending $54,930,616 on forwards, $20,882,500 of defense, $2,400,000 on goalies and $1,200,000 on Phil Kessel. That comes out to $79.413116 million.
Petr Mrazek makes $3.8 million and Ilya Mikheyev makes $1.645 million so if they kept everyone they’d be at $84.858116 million.
They’ll send Kirill Semyonov ($825) and Joseph Woll ($750k) to the Toronto Marlies since they’re both waiver exempt and their positions will be filled by the return of Mrazek and Mikheyev. That’ll bring them to $83.283116 million.
A possible move for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as unfortunate as it may be, would be to assign Timothy Liljegren ($863,333) to the Marlies since he is waiver exempt. This will bring Toronto’s total salary down to $82.419783 million.
This is where the Toronto Maple Leafs have to make a decision on how to shed another $919,783 or more from their salary cap. They could trade a player or assign another player to the Marlies.
If the Maple Leafs try to keep everyone in the organization, some one would have to go through waivers. The most likely candidate would be the newly re-acquired Kyle Clifford ($1 million) since Clifford has already cleared waivers recently and would likely clear again. That would leave Toronto’s total salary at $81.419783 million.
In this scenario, the Toronto Maple Leafs would have a 21 player roster with 13 forwards, 6 defensemen and 2 goalies. This is of course as long as there aren’t any other players out with injury on the team in the meantime.
It’s not ideal to carry a 21 player roster when a team can carry up to 23 players, but it’s a decision the Toronto Maple Leafs would have to make in an effort to ice as competitive a team as possible. Timothy Liljegren won’t be far from the team though and will definitely get another call up when the opportunity arises.
That being said, there is still the chance that the Toronto Maple Leafs could trade a player to ensure Kyle Clifford doesn’t get claimed. They’ve already lost Adam Brooks and Michael Amadio to waiver claims this season, and while they probably would prefer not to lose anyone else, the rules make it intentionally difficult to keep legitimate NHL players as injury insurance.
I guess until then, the trade rumours will continue to swirl, but who are we kidding? Do the trade rumours ever really stop in Toronto?