How the Nick Ritchie trade impacts Jack Campbell and other pending free agent Leafs
Last night, the Leafs made a trade with the Arizona Coyotes acquiring, Ilya Lyubushkin and Ryan Dzingel for Nick Ritchie and a conditional draft pick. As a result of the trade, the Leafs saved themselves $500K this season, but the real kicker is that it has freed up an additional $2.5M for next season. Why is that important? Because it will help them re-sign Jack Campbell.
Trading Ritchie was essential for the Leafs. It gets them out of an expensive cap hit for someone providing little-to-no value to the team and gives them some additional cap flexibility, which was sorely needed. A move was ultimately what was best for both sides and the fact that the Leafs did not have to retain any money on Ritchie is an added bonus.
Speaking of money providing no value, the $1.2 million that the Leafs retained from the Phil Kessel trade comes off the books this summer as well. Since the Kessel trade, the Leafs have been eating that money, which wasn't a problem for a few years because the Leafs weren't up against the cap. However, since the "Core 4" signed their current contracts, that retention has come back to haunt them. Every dollar of the salary cap is important when half of it is being paid to 4 players. The $1.2 million could've been used by the Leafs to bring in another Michael Bunting or Ondrej Kase type of player. Luckily, it comes off the books and, combined with the $2.5M they're now saving without the Ritchie deal, it creates an extra $3.7M that can be used to help re-sign Campbell.
The Buds are also facing some potential issues regarding pending what to do about their unrestricted free agents, such as Ilya Mikheyev and Jason Spezza, and the two newly acquired players from the Coyotes, as well as Ondrej Kase and Pierre Engvall who are set to become restricted free agents at year's end. Add to that the new deals needed for Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin, and the Leafs certainly have some tough decisions ahead. Every dollar counts right now.
With the revenue losses due to the fan attendance situation for the last few months in Canada, who knows if the salary cap will go up a bit as originally expected? It's very likely that we see another move prior to the trade deadline and yet another trade during the offseason to try to clear some additional space with which to allocate to some of the players listed above. Some very interesting times ahead in Leafs Nation.
