Toronto Maple Leafs Have More Big Moves Pending

The Toronto Maple Leafs seem to be taking a bit of a breather after a busy start to the summer, but make no mistake – big moves are on the horizon.

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost about ten players from last years roster, replaced them with Tyler Bertuzzi and and an absolutely ridiculous $11 million dollars of limited cap space on the combined talents of Max Domi, John Klingberg, David Kampf and Ryan Reaves.

No team spent more money to get less this summer than the Leafs  and their new GM Brad Treliving.

And more moves are pending for the extremely unpopular new GM.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Next Move

The Leafs have to sign Auston Matthews.

They have an arbitration hearing with their starting goalie coming up on Friday.

Matt Murray likely cannot be traded or bought out and (as I’ve said all along) its best to keep him because he can go on the LTIR pretty much at will.

Their blueline is extremely crappy.

Their cap space is gone.

In fact, the Toronto Maple Leafs are over $3 million over the cap right now, and even if Murray’s hit gets erased by the LTIR, there still isn’t enough money to sign Samsonov.

That means they will have to trade either TJ Brodie, or William Nylander to make space. Since I have no confidence in the failing new GM, what it probably means is that they’ll trade William Nylander, even though at $6.9 million he is an extreme bargain and nothing you’ll get back for him will be worth losing that dirt-cheap final season.

Barring a miracle, it doesn’t look like there is a good way out of this mess that Treliving created for himself in just over two months on the job.

Had he not signed 4 Replacement Players to the combined salary of Mitch Marner, the Toronto Maple Leafs would be able to sign their goalie, and wouldn’t be forced to move either Brodie or Nylander.

They would then use rookies to plug the holes in the lineup, and wait until the deadline when the players available are better, have fractional cap hits, and when it is more clear what the lineup needs.

Instead of being patient, Treliving was desperate to put his own stamp on the team, and he signed a bunch of name-brand players with extreme low-probabilities of living up to their contracts.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have 4 elite superstars, plus whatever version of Morgan Rielly that shows up, and Tyler Bertuzzi.

That should be enough to make them into a top team for a fifth straight season, but considering they were the deepest team in the NHL and had the most stars on their roster when they were eliminated from the playoffs this past spring, that isn’t close to good enough.