Toronto Maple Leafs Have the Worst Salary Cap Situation In the NHL

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed starting goalie Ilya Samsonov to a one-year $3.55 million dollar contract on Sunday.

The award was due to the arbitrator’s decision, after the Toronto Maple Leafs and their star goalie failed to come to a deal ahead of Friday’s hearing.

While the deal basically just splits what each side was requesting, the deal puts the Leafs way over the salary cap.

Obviously corresponding moves will occur, and the Leafs do get the option to buy-out players for the next couple days after going to arbitration, but for now they are farther over the cap than any other team in the league. (capfriendly.com).

Toronto Maple Leafs Have the Worst Salary Cap Situation In the NHL

At least that is the current situation.

The Leafs are over $12 million beyond the salary cap, while second place Tampa is “only” almost $6 million over.  Accounting for players that can likely be put on the long-term injured reserve (the LTIR) the Leafs are still almost $7 million over the cap.

There is uncertainty over Matt Murray and whether or not he can put on the LTIR, but even if he can, the Leafs are still about $3 million over the limit.

Realistically, they are in decent shape overall because they don’t have any long-term contracts that are bad, but the problem is that the team is already much worse than they were last year and they are going to have to get worse to make the salary cap.

If the Leafs cannot move Matt Murray because of his injuries, that is a best case scenario. It means they don’t have to pay to get out of his contract (whether from a buyout or a trade with another team).

Additionally, it clears almost $5 million from their budget and gives Joseph Woll an easy path to playing time.

With Murray on the LTIR, the Leafs could move Cale Jarnkrok and be pretty close to being under the cap. The problem is you have to add in a new player, even if its at the league minimum they would probably still be over.

If Jarnkrok isn’t enough to make the Toronto Maple Leafs cap compliant, things start to get dicey.

The only real options after that are William Nylander and TJ Brodie.  Both players would cost the Leafs wins if they were to lose them, but Brodie is the by far better option out of the two.

Nylander’s $6.9 million cap hit is a mega-bargain and the Toronto Maple Leafs simply cannot move their best value contract when they are already in cap trouble.

Therefore, T.J Brodie is the most likely to move.  In retrospect, you have to wonder if the Leafs already regret the $11 million they wasted on Kampf, Domi, Klingberg and Reaves.