Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Remember Not to Pay Non-Stars

The Toronto Maple Leafs under Kyle Dubas did one thing really well, and that was that they didn’t pay non-star players much term or money.

Sure, the Toronto Maple Leafs made exceptions (and I’d argue they shouldn’t have) for players like Cale Jarnkrok, Alex Kerfoot and others.  However, Kerfoot had upside, and Jarnkrok’s four years made his cap hit really cheap.

Exceptions can (and will inevitably) be made, but the underlying principle cannot change.

It is always a mistake to get players who are not stars, and then give them money or term.

Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Remember Not to Pay Non-Stars

Under GM Brad Treliving, the Calgary Flames committed the sin of overpaying non-star players quite frequently, and I’m really hoping that Brendan Shanahan doesn’t let Treliving do that in Toronto.

Whenever the Leafs lose, people look to the Core Four and how much their paid, but an actual non-emotional analysis will show that despite the big commitments to star players, the Leafs have been one of the NHL’s deepest teams every year for the last five years.

The reason is that Dubas never, or at least very infrequently,  gave out money to players who didn’t deserve it. (info for this article from capfriendly.com).

The Leafs summer plans should not include re-signing Kerfoot, Ryan O’Reilly, David Kampf, Noel Acciari, Ilya Samsonov, Erik Gustafsson, Justin Holl or Luke Schenn.

The calculous is simple: with the possible exception of Ryan O’Reilly, none of those players is a star or has the upside to be a star.  They will all, without exception, be overpaid by anything over the league minimum or a multi-year deal.

In the case of O’Reilly, he’s way too old and his magical leadership abilities were non-existent in Toronto, as far as I could tell. He’s too slow and old and a waste of cap space.

Unless salaries are retained, the Leafs should have no interest players like Scott Loughton, Evgeny Kuznetsov or any of the overpaid, signed-for-too-long St Louis Blues Defenseman likely to hit the market.

The Toronto Maple Leafs need impact players, and when they can’t get impact players, they should not be shy about using their farm team. The Leafs have a lot of great prospects and it’s time to start letting them play in the NHL.

The slight difference between a non-star veteran and a rookie is made up for by the extra money you can put into star players.   Kyle Dubas couldn’t take advantage of this because Mark Hunter and the previous regime was so bad at drafting, but ironically, Treliving will be able to take advantage of Dubas’ drafting and he’ll look like a genius. 

Provided he doesn’t overpay bad players.