How the Leafs' contract values stack up to the rest of the league; they're surprisingly exceptional
For years we've heard about how the Leafs are a salary cap disaster from top to bottom. The truth, however, is that the Leafs don't have one single contract that they couldn't move if they needed to, with the exception of MAYBE John Tavares, who holds a full NMC for 3 more seasons and an $11M cap hit. Still, even with the Tavares deal, the Leafs are in an envious position of being limited to just one contract that could be interpreted as a "problem contract" while other teams have multiple.
If you've ever wondered how the Leafs actually stack up to teams from around the league in terms of contract values, the Athletic's Dom Luszczyszyn did a deep dive into all 32 teams' contracts and how they're structured, grading them along the way. The results were actually quite surprising for some teams, including the Minnesota Wild, who have buyouts for Ryan Suter and Zach Parise on the books that will be costing them $12.7M-$14.7M over the next 3 seasons. However, it was actually the Leafs who took center stage, finishing as a top-3 team in terms of contract values.
Dom had the Leafs listed at #3 on his list, giving the club an overall A grade. After a down year, newcomer Calle Jarnkrok actually holds the Leafs' lowest contract grade at a C. Per Dom's model, Jarnkrok's 4-year deal at $2.1M per season carries a a -5.5M surplus value, which should almost certainly come up in a more favourable situation in Toronto. Next up from the bottom are the contracts of Jake Muzzin and John Tavares, which each earned a C+ grade.
Essentially, with the Leafs having 13 roster players ranking at a B- or better, it should tell us everything we need to know about how GM Kyle Dubas has built his roster. Having a majority of players on the roster who add a positive value relative to their pay has allowed the Buds to remain competitive even with a top-heavy structure.
One thing I was actually surprised by was that the vast majority of the Leafs' biggest contracts held a positive surplus value. In fact, of the six players who held a negative surplus value, only 2 of them would be considered larger contracts. Those, of course, are Tavares' $11M for 3 more seasons and Jake Muzzin's $5.625M for 2 more seasons. The 4 others earn just $2.1M, $1.5M, $900K and $762K against the cap and are very easily moveable, with two of them being eligible to be completely buried in the AHL. In the end, these are hardly the types of deals that can hold a team back or become a burden.
If you'd like to take a look at the full write-up from Dom, you can check it out below:
