The Leafs may be over the cap, but there's no need to panic; so are 11 other teams
A trade can happen in the NHL for one of many reasons. Maybe a certain player did not mesh well with other players in the locker room and a change of scenery would benefit both parties. Perhaps management believes a player has exhausted their potential and no longer aligns with the long-term aspirations of the club. We have seen a number of trades occur this summer and they all served a purpose. Sometimes, however, it is nothing personal and it is just a part of the business. More often than not, GMs are forced to make tough business decisions with the sole purpose of ensuring that their respected club is in compliance with the league's salary cap requirements.
With the NHL season set to kickoff next month, there are still 12 teams that are still over the salary cap. Yes, you read that right, 37.5% of NHL clubs currently exceed the leagues salary cap limit of $82.5 million. For the offseason, clubs are allowed to exceed the cap limit by 10%, but they must be cap compliant at the start of the NHL season.
A list of the 12 teams is provided below, which I have organized this last based off of how much over the cap each team is. Shout out to CapFriendly for providing the most accurate and up-to-date data.
Vegas Golden Knights � exceed cap by $10.2M
Tampa Bay Lightning � exceed cap by $7.19M
Edmonton Oilers � exceed cap by $6.78M
Washington Capitals � exceed cap by $6.32M
Montreal Canadiens � exceed cap by $6.12M
Florida Panthers � exceed cap by $3.375M
Vancouver Canucks � exceed cap by $2.75M
Carolina Hurricanes � exceed cap by $2.6M
Philadelphia Flyers � exceed cap by $2.37M
Boston Bruins � exceed cap by $2.24M
Toronto Maple Leafs � exceed cap by $1.49M
Pittsburgh Penguins � exceed cap by $1.4M
Some clubs will have a much easier time adhering to the cap limit then others. Let's take Vegas for example. Back on August 11th, the team announced that their starting goalie, Robin Lehner is going to need hip surgery and is likely going to miss the entirety of the 2022-2023. Obviously, you would much rather have your club's number one goaltender in-between the pipes for you on opening night, but at least the Golden Knights will be able to place Lehner on LTIR - this move will free up $5 Million in cap space for the club.
Did I forget to mention Shea Weber? For those who may not remember, the club traded Evgenii Dadonov to the Montreal Canadiens for the two-time Olympic gold medalist back in June. Placing Shea Weber on the LTIR will help the Golden Knights take another $7.857M off their books. Those two moves alone would put the Golden Knights under the $82.5M threshold.
Other teams might be hoping that a player on a PTO (professional try out) can impress the coaching staff at training camp, and perhaps sign the player to a cheap deal. A team that might be taking this route is the Florida Panthers. Back in July, it was announced that the Panthers had signed Eric Staal to a PTO. If Staal somehow makes a big impression at camp, the Panthers could sign him to a very cheap contract and then send one of the other forwards with a larger cap hit to the AHL's Henderson Silver Knights, or perhaps move them to another team via trade. Even though Staal's best days are surely behind him, he could surely bring a lot of leadership and experience to the club. Chemistry also would not be problem � let us not forget that the Panthers also signed Staal's younger brother, Marc, to a contract this past summer as well.
This is a Leafs fan page, so let's briefly look at how the club is going to go about meeting the salary cap requirements. First and foremost, it is nice to see the Buds near the bottom of this list. In a perfect world, the club would not be on this list at all, however, Leafs fans are the first to know that we do not live in a perfect world. There is zero doubt in my mind that Kyle Dubas will get the club below that magic number of $82.5 Million as he continues to work his magic. The Maple Leafs currently have 14 forwards that are currently contributing to their salary cap. They only need 12 forwards on opening night, so I am sure Dubas and company will take the next few weeks to figure out exactly who will be getting the nod when the club makes their season debut on October 12th at the Bell Centre against the Montreal Canadiens.
With the season so close now, we're going to see teams push to trim their rosters down to size, but first, training camp and the preseason, which could be very important in terms of how the Leafs and their counterparts who are also over the cap choose to proceed.
