The Leafs have made salary cap history
Entering this season, the Leafs had a bonus overage of approximately $212 000, which played a role in the fact that they had to wait to sign Zach Aston-Reese to a very specific dollar amount on his 1-year contract. If you're wondering what these bonuses are, they are performance bonuses for things such as games played and points among other things and can only be included in entry-level or 35+ player contracts. Teams have the ability to push these bonuses to the following season to allow for more cap flexibility in the current season, however, they are applied to the team's cap hit.
While the Leafs had an overage this season, CapFriendly has identified that they will not have any overages next season. This is because they have no players on their reserve list with performance bonuses. That means that the Leafs can use LTIR all season and will not have a bonus overage penalty next season.
According to CapFriendly, the Leafs are the first team in the cap era to not have a single contract containing performance bonuses or have cap overages the following season.
With the Leafs always pushing the cap limits and playing salary cap gymnastics, every dollar counts. The cap is expected to climb another million dollars next season to $83.5M which means the Leafs only have to worry about fitting their roster under the cap and not worrying about any bonus penalties like the one they faced this summer from last year's overage.
It honestly wouldn't surprise me in the least if the Leafs being $4 under the salary cap is the closest that any team has been before utilizing LTIR relief as well. They may be cap history-makers x2 this year.
