After signing both Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi, the Maple Leafs now find themselves nearly $9MM over the salary cap, per CapFriendly. Even with the LTIR allowance for Jake Muzzin, they’re still more than $3MM over that ceiling. Accordingly, there is an expectation that they will need to move out goaltender Matt Murray. To that end, in his latest post for NorthStar Bets, Chris Johnston notes that Toronto’s preference at this point is to try to trade Murray over using the second buyout window, a move that would open up $4MM in cap space in 2023-24 but add $2MM in dead cap charges in 2024-25. Considering they have pricey extensions on the horizon for Auston Matthews and William Nylander, having dead cap charges on the books won’t help.
The Maple Leafs will get a second buyout window if an arbitration-eligible player files for arbitration. That would be RFA Ilya Samsonov so expect him to be one of many players filing for arbitration by Thursday’s deadline. But that’s Plan B for them. For now, GM Brad Treliving will be shopping around to see who’s willing to take on that contract and just how much it will cost in an incentive to do so.
Elsewhere in the East:
- When Detroit waived Filip Zadina yesterday, the move came as a surprise. However, GM Steve Yzerman told reporters including Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press that the youngster had requested a trade a couple of weeks prior to the draft. Clearly, that didn’t materialize and after he cleared today, it’s back to the drawing board on that front. Zadina has two years left on a contract that carries a $1.825MM AAV and it appears that the Red Wings will need to pay some of that down or take a similar contract back if they want to move him. Alternatively, the fact he cleared now suggests they could waive him in training camp, saving $1.15MM in cap room in the process for any time that he’s in the minors.
- Flyers prospect Yegor Zamula is on the move…in the KHL, that is as Torpedo announced that they’ve acquired his KHL rights from SKA St. Petersburg. The 23-year-old split last season between Philadelphia and AHL Lehigh Valley. With the Flyers, Zamula had four assists in 14 games while logging a little over 13 minutes per night. However, he was more productive with the Phantoms, notching 19 points in 44 contests. Zamula is already under contract for the upcoming season on a one-way deal worth the NHL minimum. Coyotes unsigned prospect Ilya Fedotov was also part of the four-player swap.
Once again to many unqualified cooks In the Maple Leafs kitchen, Management can’t get out of there own way. No one should be surprised at the Wings washing their hands of Zadina.
spoken like a true keyboard warrior
Little known fact – Wilf Paiement is a sock account for John Ferguson Jr.
You’re welcome!!!
Thanks! That is funny, You’re welcome!
I presume GM’s and their capologists know what they’re doing. But if not, we all get a good laugh in at their expense. :)
You take the expected cap hit, and subtract from it the real salary in Swedish kronor. Then divide that number by Gary Bettman’s shoe size, add the amount of hot dogs consumed at arenas in the west division, then multiply by the cosine of the times Max Pacioretty got booed in Montreal the last 5 years.
Either that, or hire Sam “Small Print” Lyman to explain it.
So let me get this straight… Toronto has an NHL goalie that hasn’t been above 900 SV% in years making established starter money to sit in the pressbox, they have three of the highest-paid forwards in the entire league on the same roster, they have to re-sign one of them to McDavid money without McDavid play, and they still went out and signed more guys to put themselves $9 million over the cap… And they’ve made the second round of the playoffs exactly once in the last 20 years.
This team is SCREWED. Like they have to get out of that Tavares contract somehow. Trade Nylander and Tavares for future considerations or something. This team is going to be very, very bad in a year or two if something isn’t done.
Johnny pajamas has a full NMC. He is unmovable.
Wow, yikes. Now to be fair, his play is still great and AAV is not completely out to lunch. But one of those three absolutely has to go. You could convince me on Matthews – Tavares as 1C – 2C though.
Nylander should realistically be the odd man out. On a sensible team. But this is Toronto we’re talking about, so I’m sure they’ll sign him to 10 X 8 with a full NMC right before his production dips to 40 pts.
Only thing I have to say is they aren’t 9 mil over the Cap, 5.6 will go to ltir for muzzin, Lajoie and timmins are both on the roster as 7th and 8th defenseman they can be buried in the minors with is about 2 mil, so we over by a little bit so it’s not 9 million bad lol
Not that I don’t agree with what your point is I just wanted to clarify the cap. It’s hard to be a leafs fan, we always swimming up current it seems. The Tavares contract has a no move and no buyout so he’s not going anywhere. Nylander I can see being moved but you would need to take someone back to help fill his void
But the thing to remember is if a team (tor) wants to use the full cap hit of a platoon LTIR for the entire yr, that player has to be included under the cap and on the active roster on day 1 of the season, then put on LTIR an hour later.
Who are the leafs able to waive / send to the minors on a paper schuffle to activate Muzzin’s contract, and still keep the minimum 20 players.
It’s because to use Muzzin’s full contract on LTIR he has to be on the roster on day 1 of the season. So Leafs need to have enough room to activate him prior to the season
Really?? I actually did not know that. Thanks for that info I did not take that into account, and not sure what the plan is for them to be cap complient even if it is for a day. I assume Treliving has swam in those waters before so I will leave that to him instead of me trying to speculate lol
So Toronto is 9 million over the Cap. I thought they had to be doing all of this with Smoke and Mirrors, And now we find out that’s true. 3 Million is hard to get rid of today much less 9. Good luck with that.
By the way, This is exactly what Bowman did to the Hawks after the Cups by giving bloated contracts to role players and tossing NMC’s around like confetti. I agree with Pyramid. Stand back because this is going to be bumpy ride.
Its not actuslly 9 million over the cap, it’s under 2 mil over the cap with ltir and players being send to the minors. Still tough but not 9 mil, I dunno why reporters keep saying that when just looking at cap friendly will give them the right info.
So what you are trying to tell me is Matthews is either already on LTIR until playoffs or he is being traded for futures.
I don’t think the idea of a Matthews trade is completely stupid. If they can absolutely rob the bank on a trade, it might actually be a sensible move. But I would expect a return of like… A top 6 forward, a top 4 defender, and 2 1sts. Something like that. More if salary is retained.
Well that leaves the Hawks out. They don’t have a top 4 defender but thanks for playing. Everything else they can swing no sweat. That is if you take potential guys. I’m assuming you don’t want actual good players back because they’ll come with salary commitments.
The key is balance. Toronto is rolling a lineup that’s ludicrously top-heavy. Like yeah, they have some amazing players… But then a bunch of guys who really should be AHL players or 4th liners punching up. That’s not really a formula for success, as Eberle era Edmonton can demonstrate.
The last 2 drafts have set the Blackhawks up to be a major player for awhile. They have at least 2 1sts and 2 2nds for the next 3 years. They should be at the point where they could be adding some major talent soon. Matthews would be a good get. In fact Mathews, Bedard, Oliver Moore and Lukas Reichel kind of has me salivating but I don’t think Davidson wants to play in those waters. He wants to pay his own guys which kind of makes him the Anti Bowman and we’re happy about it. I think he’ll be playing in the 4-6 million dollar range until his guys are ready. It’s a good strategy. I like him.
Yup. Roster construction is an under rated concept. It seems strange that you don’t want too many superstars, but you don’t want too many superstars. You look at McDavid and Draisaitl, neither is over paid in term of what they bring. But it’s hard to build a cup winning roster with what’s left after you pay them. In Edmonton they didn’t do it to themselves the way Toronto did, but it’s still a surprisingly tough situation. Be careful what you wish for, because in a cap league it is possible to have too much of a good thing.
(nods) Part of my ongoing contention that contention in this day and age is strongly linked to a team’s stars not taking top dollar. How many wins does Boston get last year with Bergeron and Krejci demanding fair market salaries (Bruins wouldn’t have been able to afford either of them), and how better would their cap situation be eased if Pasta and McAvoy didn’t insist on max dollar extensions?
I think Florida demonstrates another viable model – a revolving door of competent role players cast correctly. Like Eric Staal is obviously not Cup-winning Eric Staal… But as a bottom six scorer who was responsible defensively and could pot a goal the second you catch the defence sleeping, he was a threat. He made League minimum on a “show me” deal. When a guy couldn’t pull his weight – thinking of Givani Smith in the Boston series specifically – they weren’t left out to flounder. They were benched and scratched when appropriate.
I think the core of two legitimate stars on Forward, and a solid Top 4 on Defence, supplemented with role players on short to mid term contracts at market value, plus goaltenders that can be counted on to keep beach balls out of the net (not you, Martin Jones) on a nightly basis.. That’s how you win. And I like it a lot more than teams with win with dishonest BS (Tampa Bay cheating the cap with LTIR) and asking players to “take one for the team” at the expense of their own salary (Boston).
that model only works though if your veteran role players take close to league minimum deals. something that likely depends on location. Toronto has tried this before, the Rangers took this approach this offseason with wheeler, Bonino, Quick, Fla has the benefit of no tax so league min is a little easier to swallow.