One of the keys to the Kirill Marchenko trade was a contract extension. Without it, the deal would have been a no-go.
It was actually news of the extension that broke before the trade became official. That was pretty much the tip-off that the deal was, in fact, happening.
And as insider Elliotte Friedman revealed, the Maple Leafs actually had two paths in a Marchenko contract. In the most recent edition of the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Friedman pointed out that Marchenko’s agent, Dan Milstein, presented the Leafs with two options.
“From what I understand, the Leafs were told they had two choices: 5 times 12 or 6 times 12 and a half. They chose the 6 times 12 and a half option.”
Of course, the dollar figures and term were just part of the deal. As Friedman noted, the Maple Leafs had to actually finalize the paperwork to make the new contract a reality.
“So, they had to work on the structure and some of the language, which they did, but the extension was basically presented to them.”
It makes sense that the Maple Leafs chose the second option. Even if the cap hit seems high in the first couple of years, it was the right long-term move for the organization.
Maple Leafs had to redo Marchenko trade because of extension
One other thing that Friedman pointed out was that the Maple Leafs and Blue Jackets had to rework the final trade because of Marchenko’s extension.
That reworking of the trade package led to Emil Andrea heading to Columbus. That was the result of the so-called “tagging” rules.
“The other thing that was crazy was, I think, they had to redo the deal… people have asked me to explain this tagging thing. The simplest way to do it is, you can’t have $300 million in contracts the next year.”
In essence, the Leafs could not exceed next year’s cap ceiling, which stands at $113.5 million. As such, the organization had to ship someone out in order to keep the total cap allocation for next season under the limit.
And so, Andrae became a cap casualty.
In hindsight, it’s all right. The Maple Leafs had essentially chosen Nick Blankenburg over Andrae. And so, he sort of became expendable. It remains to be seen if Andrae will actually get a chance to play in Columbus.
In the meantime, the details surrounding the Marchenko trade point towards a rather complex set of circumstances that faced time constraints as teams had to ensure their Opening Night rosters were cap-compliant.
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