The Toronto Maple Leafs Are In Great Shape Due to Cap Flexibility

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t made a roster move in years!

At least, that’s what it feels like when your job is to cover the Toronto Maple Leafs all summer long.

Not that I’m complaining – there’s little else I’d rather do – but I wouldn’t complain about a constant stream of transactions and roster moves to idle away the hours until training camp.

Rasmus Sandin needs a contract, Alex Kerfoot and Justin Holl are still here.

In fact, the Leafs currently have nine NHL defenseman on their roster (Rielly, Brodie, Muzzin, Holl, Sandin, Liljegren, Giordano, Mete and Benn (the latter two combine for over 800 NHL games, even if they are likely to start this season in the AHL), are almost $2 million over the salary cap, and have 48 out of 50 allowable contracts on the books.

To say that more roster moves are coming would be an understatement.  More roster moves are definitely, for sure,  happening.

One reason that the Dubas/Shanahan combo is so good is because they don’t double down on their mistakes – they admit them and move on.  A part of doing that is maintaining maximum roster flexibility – the team is always at the upper edge of the salary cap, but they never have any bad contracts (more on that in a minute) and they always leave themselves an out.

For example, while they are maxxed out right now, they could easily trade Kerfoot or Holl and save $5.5 million.  Jake Muzzin could be shuffled to the LTIR, or he could be traded.

You can see how the Leafs manage this by never signing their mid-range RFAs to extensions.  No need to sign Mikheyev when you can have Aube-Kubel for 4x less.  No need to extend Jack Campbell when you can sign two goalies with no term commitments and get the same exact odds of success (arguably better).

No need to sign Hyman when you get Bunting (better and 5x cheaper).  You get the point.

This brings me to their current situation (48/50 contracts, over the cap) which is not nearly as scary as The Media would have you believe.

I mean, the coverage this team gets is completely ridiculous, considering they were 4th overall, currently have the two best players in franchise history in their primes, and are going to enter the season as a Stanley Cup/President’s Trophy Favorite.  If you just read the opinion pages, you’d think they were managed incompetently instead of having the premier management group in all of pro sports. (Of course, they won’t get credited for this until they win, which they will, at which point I will become completely insufferable, having been right all along).

Whatever. Let’s discuss some potential roster moves.

Toronto Maple Leafs Upcoming Roster Moves

Jake Muzzin and his $5.5 contract and his declining, unreliable, injury-prone body are still here.  You think the Leafs will hesitate for a second to McDonagh him? Or to sideline him to the LTIR?  He’ll waive that NTC and be out the door faster than Phil Kessel with tickets to Rib Fest, if they want him to.

Muzzin, Brodie, Kerfoot and Holl combine for $15+ million dollars.  While I doubt the team wants to move on from Brodie, they do have nine NHL defensemen on their roster  and who knows, maybe some Marlies who may win a job at camp.

The point isn’t that the team will move these guys, it’s that they can if they want to. Why? Because they built their roster to be extremely flexible.

Goalies doing poorly?  They could waive Samsonov, trade Kerfoot and Holl (in a separate trade if necessary) and suddenly, they can afford a new goalie.

(Their bet that an ex-Top Prospect and a 2 x Cup Winner can combine to be the 27th or better goalies in the league, which is what they had last season when they finished 4th overall, is more than reasonable, especially when you account for the flexibility , both in season and going forward that bet provides).

Whatever the Leafs end up needing, they’ve got a ton of cap flexibility to do so.  The goalies aren’t the only thing they take a beating on from a biased media, that seems hellbent on criticizing whatever they do, even when it’s smart.

The Leafs cap situation is magnificent.  The Marner, Matthews and Nylander deals are now so team-friendly it’s ridiculous.  The Athletic (linked to above) just graded them the 3rd best salary cap situation in the NHL, based on contract efficiency.

The Leafs prospect situation is equally fantastic. Considering they haven’t picked in the top ten for six years now, the fact that they’ve got a top ten collection in the NHL is incredibly impressive.

Goalies, Salary Cap, Prospects, all better than you’d think if you didn’t do any thinking for yourself and just listened to the people whose employers actually own the team they work too hard to seem like they aren’t in favor of.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in great shape as they approach the next season.