Comparing the Leafs' salary cap situation this summer to their division rivals
If there's one phrase I would love to never hear again, its "cap hell". We've been hearing it ever since Kyle Dubas inked John Tavares to a 7-year, $11 million contract in 2018. Leafs fans bemoan the team's cap situation as they've seen players like James Van Reimsdyk, Tyler Bozak, and most recently, Zach Hyman and Frederik Andersen walk in free agency because the Leafs couldn't afford to sign them. Many Leafs fans regularly call for Dubas to lose his job for his alleged mismanagement of the cap, but is it warranted?
Looking around the league, there isn't a single contending team with a cap situation any better than Toronto's. We are going to use the $82.5 million salary cap that TSN's Chris Johnston reported this week.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have 17 current roster players signed for next season and $6,550,000 to sign 5 players to get to a 22 man roster if you account for Brent Seabrook's LTIR money. The problem is, one of those 5 players is Ondrej Palat, who they are likely to try to retain. Suddenly the Lightning are a lot closer to the cap ceiling than they would like to be.
The Florida Panthers have 16 current roster players signed for next season and only $4,566,666 to play with. They will have to move money out or watch breakout star Mason Marchment walk in free agency.
The Boston Bruins have 20 players signed and $4,320,833 to play with, but they have a massive hole in their lineup with Patrice Bergeron's contract expiring. One would assume Bergeron isn't done playing, but if he is, or if he signs elsewhere (also doubtful), the Bruins will be left with very little money to fill some very big shoes. If Bergeron is retained, he will likely take up most or all of that cap space going forward.
The Leafs have by far the most flexibility in their roster at the moment. With 13 players under contract for next season and $11,219,384 in projected cap space, they can go in several directions. Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren and Jack Campbell all need new deals. Mark Giordano is reportedly interested in potentially signing a Spezza-esque deal, so that helps, but with Pierre Engvall and Ondrej Kase, there will be decisions to make. Its very likely that you'll see a player, likely one on a fair sized contract moved in the off season to make room for the younger generation coming in. We'll look at who is most likely to be moved in another article.
The Leafs' salary cap situation isn't perfect by any means, but looking at the players they have and the space they have, they're no worse off than any of their division rivals. We can only hope that the salary cap will continue to rise as the league recovers from its losses during the pandemic.
| POLL | ||
MARS 29 | 293 ANSWERS Comparing the Leafs' salary cap situation this summer to their division rivals Has Dubas mismanaged the Leafs Salary cap? | ||
| Yes, fire him | 43 | 14.7 % |
| No worse than anyone else | 91 | 31.1 % |
| He paid the big 4 too much | 83 | 28.3 % |
| He's doing a fantastic job | 76 | 25.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
