Toronto Maple Leafs Continue to Prove They Are Salary Cap Wizards

The Toronto Maple Leafs are set up perfectly for the next two years to win, thanks to some salary-cap wizardry.

The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t have any bad contract right now, and the worst they do have is the Tavares contract, which was market value for the best UFA to ever change teams. Even though you’d hope Tavares was a 40-goal and 100 point player every year at his price-tag, his leadership, work ethic and point-per-game production is still worth having him around.

As for the rest of the team, everybody on the roster is properly paid or underpaid.

Over the past few years, the Leafs have continued to let players walk into free agency and the main reason why has been because of price. Most recently, Ilya Mikheyev and Jack Campbell walked into an over-payment of a contract, which is fantastic for them, but also fantastic that Toronto didn’t budge.

General manager’s always get into trouble when they overpay for players, but the opposite has seemingly happened with every signing that Kyle Dubas has made over the past few years.

He locked down the core-five (Morgan Rielly, included) for a long-stretch of time and has continued to fill the cupboard around them. Although this team hasn’t played a single regular season game yet, the roster seems to be coming into form, with an emphasis on these five players who are underpaid.

Toronto Maple Leafs Have a Two-Year Window

• Nick Robertson – $796K x 2 years
• Michael Bunting – $950K x 1 years
• Rasmus Sandin – $1.4M x 2 years
• Timothy Liljegren – $1.4M x 2 years
• Mark Giordano – $800K x 2 years

For the price of $5.346M, the Leafs have three solid NHL defenseman and two top-six left-wingers on their roster. For reference, that’s the same price as Calgary Flames third-line centre, Mikael Backlund, who’s career-high is 23 goals and 53 points in a season. (Cap info from capfriendly.com).

Bunting had more goals (23) and points (63) last year and is making one-fifth of the price, not to mention the four other players you can get for the same price.

In order to be a successful team in the salary-cap NHL, you need players on Entry Level Contracts, or those making close to league minimum who can play huge roles. The Leafs missed the opportunity the first time by not winning when Matthews, Marner and Nylander were on their ELC’s, but they now have an opportunity to redeem that with Bunting, Robertson, Sandin, Liljegren and Giordano.

By year’s end, Sandin and Liljegren should both be top-four (if not top-two) defenseman, while Giordano is a perfect bottom-pair veteran defenseman who can play in any situation.

As for Bunting and Robertson, both players have an opportunity to score 20-plus goals, which is unbelievable value for the price of their contract. If all goes well, both of those players could rip home 30 goals by year’s end for all we know.

There is just so much potential for those, especially Robertson who looks to finally play a full NHL season for the first time in his career.

We all know that nothing matters until the playoffs start, but this team is going to be an incredibly successful regular season team once again.

We’ll have to roll the dice in six months and see what happens in the playoffs, but for the meantime, enjoy the ride because the Toronto Maple Leafs are set up for success.