Leafs reporter shares interesting post about injured blueliner Jake Muzzin
Jake Muzzin has been sidelined since October, thanks to a cervical spine injury suffered against the Arizona Coyotes at the start of the season. With concerns over whether he'll be able to continue his career or not, his future in the league is in serious doubt.
The Leafs were able to put his $5.6M cap hit to good use at the deadline, using that space on a number of assets, such as Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Schenn, Noel Acciari, Sam Lafferty, Jake McCabe and Erik Gustafsson. While keeping Muzzin and stashing him on LTIR again next season is certainly an option, one Leafs reporter believes that he could actually be moved this summer.
Per The Athletic's Kevin Papetti, he has a feeling that the Leafs are preparing to send Muzzin to Arizona, along with a prospect, to help the Coyotes reach the cap floor next season.
Why would the Leafs give up a prospect to Arizona in exchange for taking on the final year of Muzzin's deal when they can just stash him on LTIR? Believe it or not, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. If a team is utilizing LTIR relief, they can't accrue cap space during the season to use at the deadline.
How it works, essentially, is that when a team (not utilizing LTIR) plays a game, if the roster they ice costs less than the salary cap, they bank a percentage of the remaining cap space they didn't spend. When you combine that with a player's remaining salary at the end of the year, sometimes teams can bank a few million dollars in cap space to use at the deadline.
I don't know whether or not the Leafs will go this route with Muzzin, given what we know about how close he is with everyone in the room and how much the young guys look up to him, but as with anything in the business world, it will likely all come down to the dollars and cents of it all. We'll see what happens this summer.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 7 | 465 ANSWERS Leafs reporter shares interesting post about injured blueliner Jake Muzzin Will the Leafs trade Muzzin this summer? | ||
| Yes | 272 | 58.5 % |
| No | 193 | 41.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
