The Toronto Maple Leafs, as implausible as it may seem, are actually in a bit of a cap crunch at the moment.
PuckPedia lists Toronto at $2.75 million over the cap. That’s fine for now, as teams can exceed the cap by 10% during the offseason.
The problem will be, however, that the Leafs have to be cap-compliant before the first game of the season. So, that gives John Chayka about 15 days to figure out how to shape the roster in order to fit everyone under the cap.
Now, there’s one direction that really no team wants to go. The Leafs could dress one player less to get under the cap.
The problem is that player would have to be a guy making around $3 million to offset the cap cost.
There’s also the possibility of trading someone. That move could work, especially if there’s a team out there that’s desperate enough to make a move ahead of the season opener.
But let’s be realistic: who could the Maple Leafs trade at this point to get under the cap? Would anyone be willing to pay anything for, say, Dakota Joshua and his $3.25 million cap hit?
There’s a third option, one that isn’t really going to work, either. The Leafs could put someone on waivers. That move won’t do much, as the only real salary relief would be about $1.2 million (NHL league minimum plus $375K).
That’s why the only real, and fortunately the easiest, way out is to place Max Domi on long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
The solution to Maple Leafs’ cap crunch is to send Domi to Robidas Island
As callous as it may sound, the only real solution to the Maple Leafs’ cap conundrum is to ship Domi off to Robidas Island.
As I’ve stated before, Domi will be the next resident on the island where players don’t ever really return from.
And it’s not that the organization is going to make up Domi’s injury to get him off the books. It’s not a case of paying him to go away.
It’s a case of Domi being legitimately injured and unable to play. So, with a paper transaction, Domi hits LTIR, the Leafs collect the cap relief, and the cap problem goes away.
There’s a catch though.
The rules state that the limit for LTIR cap relief is $3.97 million this season. That means that if a player has a $10 million cap hit, the team can only collect $3.97 million in relief.
That was a loophole that teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights once exploited en route to a Stanley Cup win.
Fortunately, Domi’s cap hit is below the upper limit of the LTIR relief allocation. So, the Maple Leafs could confidently write off Domi’s full cap hit.
But that’s not the only part of it.
The cap relief would only be temporary
While keeping Domi on LTIR would solve the matter, it would only be a temporary reprieve. The rules state that a player must be on LTIR for at least 24 calendar days or 10 games.
That’s important because Domi would be eligible to come off LTIR in about a month after the start of the season. And if he can play, the Leafs won’t be able to keep him on LTIR for the remainder of the season.
Now, that’s something worth keeping an eye on. The Montreal Canadiens purposely sat Patrik Laine last season, even though he admitted that he was ready to play. The only reason the Habs didn’t actually get in trouble was that Laine wasn’t on LTIR.
But in Domi’s case, he would be. As such, the Maple Leafs would have to be very careful about the situation. If he’s medically able to play, the Leafs won’t be able to keep him out.
Unless Toronto places Domi on season-ending LTIR (SELTIR), in which case he would be unable to return even for the playoffs, the Leafs will eventually have to deal with the cap crunch once and for all.
Perhaps that might be the ultimate solution. Domi goes on SELTIR while Chayka figures out how to scare up some more cap space.
It’s a tough situation, likely necessitating a trade sooner rather than later.
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