Salary Cap: Cap Situation Entering Free Agency

[Beaszt519]

Nylander - AM - MM
XX - Tavares - XX
XX - XX - XX
XX - XX - Spezza

Call up: Simmonds

How do we fix this.

 

[The CyNick]

The D group was fine. Campbell posted the second best goalie stats in the playoffs.

I mean, there is plenty to complain about, but in your never ending campaign to crucify everything, at least make some semblance of common sense.

Campbell also let in several soft goals at key times in the playoffs.

 

[Clark4Ever]

Robertson will make the team, so that takes care of a LW spot. Galchenyuk is a strong possibility at LW as well at a discounted rate.

There should also be several good veteran UFAs available at all positions for close to the league minimum when the dust settles.

We will realistically have enough cap space to make a splash for one impact UFA forward to hopefully replace Hyman.

It's too soon to worry.

 

[Mr Papagoergyo]

Yeah it's not good.
Dubas has done a poor job of balancing our pipeline and the nhl roster now we have little of both. Plus lack of picks.

 

[Mess]

Nylander - AM - MM
XX - Tavares - XX
XX - XX - XX
XX - XX - Spezza

Call up: Simmonds

How do we fix this.

You forgot Kerfoot a 3rd line player, as Leafs saved their #5 forward when they acquired McCann. A bunch of those XX are going to be players making $1 mil or less there is no getting around that.

The Leafs didn't have 7 forwards worth protecting in the expansion draft, so that is why your board looks so empty at present as that is the reality of Leafs situation due to investing that much into those 4 core forwards.

 

[egd27]

this is a cup contending roster folks

Spengler?



easy dubites......just a little joke

 

[egd27]

Im down for that.

We can get Hamilton, Hoffman and Halak. Im good with that. Triple H

Time to play The Game

 

[Beaszt519]

You forgot Kerfoot a 3rd line player, as Leafs saved their #5 forward when they acquired McCann. A bunch of those XX are going to be players making $1 mil or less there is no getting around that.

The Leafs didn't have 7 forwards worth protecting in the expansion draft, so that is why your board looks so empty at present as that is the reality of Leafs situation due to investing that much into those 4 core forwards.

This lineup is basically just based off what all the other fans believe will happen this offseason.

- We are trading Kerfoot, Engvall, Mikheyev.
- Simmonds signed to replace Clune on Marlies.
- Robertson isn't ready to play in NHL.
- Brooks and Joey Anderson aren't good enough for the Leafs.
- Nylander or Tavares will be moved to the first line LW.

 

[TimeZone]

Mikheyev-Matthews-Marner
Galchenyuk-Tavares-Nylander
Kerfoot-Wennberg-Simmonds
Engvall-Brooks-Spezza

Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl
Sandin-Dermott
Liljegren

Campbell
?????????

My God that's a terrible forward group.

 

[mikeyz]

People said the same about Tampa and Washington.

I'm not saying they are winning a cup or the best team in the league.

Sometimes staying the course is a move that works, sometimes it isn't.

He's taking his risk by sticking to his guns. His job will depend on what side the team ends up on.

I can pretty much guarantee you it will be the same side we’ve seen in the last 5 years.

 

[Arzak]

Ousted in the first rd 5 straight years, not the 2nd or 3rd rd. This core has shown it can’t win when it counts. But let’s just keep trying and adding geriatric players that haven’t won a thing

You don't get it, we have half the fan base pretending we were one shot away from winning the Cup. That's the only explanation why they keep talking about how close it was when we lost to Montreal

No one is denying it took special effort to lose in the first round again after being up 3:1.



1st place in the North
Franchise record for points
First 1st all star since Salming
Found a goalie off the scrap heap
fixed our defensive struggles
needed to win one of 2 OT games to advance and didn't

^^^

Is this really something to be proud of? 1st place in the North means nothing. Franchise record in points?Was that the year Vegas got more points than we did? 1st all star since Salming? You signed enough $10M + contracts you're bound to get all star player at one point..


Found a goalie off the scrap heap - Apparently, his name is XXXX
fixed our defensive struggles - We are still mediocre at best. Our forwards can't def to save their life and our D is meh. What we fixed and how?


needed to win one of 2 OT games to advance and didn't <---- This should tell you all you need to know about the chockers you have on this team. You need to finish 4 series, we can't finish one even if we are up 3:1, yet it somehow translates to almost winning the Cup because we were so close to beating MTL in the first round.


Half the board is drinking Editor in Leaf cool-aid. This time we can look back at Tampa, they sucked at one point in the past just like we do now, so we are exactly like TB !


The same basic b. template used when we celebrated after STL won the Cup. Look at them, they sucked the Leaf's way prior to winning the Cup, we got it !

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Agreed. I also believe this is where the Leafs went wrong on players like Marner and Nylander. They should have pushed the bridge deal 2 years prior to signing their deals. The flat cap was unexpected and if we didnt have the pandemic we easily could have had an additional 7 million in cap space. We wouldnt be speaking of this right now. But you need to plan for the unexpected. Upper management failed in this regard. Having to liquidate assets because of bad deals signed.

Imagine the Leafs the last 2 years played with Marner and Nylander on bridge deals.


Marner 7 million into next season.
Nylander 4.5 million into next season.

Thats what they would have gotten and signed if Dubas and company opened their eyes and did what they were supposed to do. That alone would have been an additional 6 million in cap space this season alone.

Not in this reality. Not for the Leafs GM or any other GM out there. Besides that, there are few fatal flaws in your scenario:

1) Nylander was not taking a bridge.

William Nylander says he 'didn't want a bridge deal' from Maple Leafs - Sportsnet.ca

2) McKenzie was talking like Marner's bridge deal would have been at least 9 mill.

Bob McKenzie breaks down a potential Marner bridge deal

Plus since it almost certainly would have been a high 3rd year with a QO, the AAV likely would have been similar to what it is right now but you buy 0 UFA years.

All to save 2 mill in cap space for 3 years, which is the best you would have mustered.

I think Dubas made the better choices.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

I've been thinking for a while they should accelerate Tavares' move to the wing and keep Nylander with Kerfoot and someone else (Gally if they can resign him, or maybe a better LW). My only fear with such a lineup is that it will incentivize Keefe to overplay the top line evern more. But honestly, they need to get Tavares and Nylander away from each other; both players look better apart. They just don't mesh well.

I thought they did much better together later on in the year.

I think I am more motivated to split up Matthews + Marner TBH.

 

[18leafsfan18]

I can pretty much guarantee you it will be the same side we’ve seen in the last 5 years.

Honestly, you can't guarantee anything. If you could there would be no point to them playing the games.

Some teams take a really long time to finally break through.

Take a look who they played in the 1st round last 5 seasons.

2017 - Wash - 2nd round, but heavy contenders
2018 - Bos - 2nd round, but heavy contenders
2019 - Bos - Finals
2020 - CBJ - Lost to cup Champs (this on was bad)
2021 - MTL - Finals

Bad luck, maybe. Not good enough, maybe. This is likley the last chance with this group, which is exactly when some other teams finally broke through (not proclaiming anything).

 

[SeaOfBlue]

XXX - Matthews - Nylander
Galchenyuk - Tavares - Marner
XXX - Kerfoot - Anderson
Mikheyev - Semyonov - Spezza
Simmonds

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Holl
Dermott - Liljegren
Poolman

Campbell
XXX

Trade Engvall. Sign Galchenyuk to a 1 year, 900k contract. 900k for a 7th defenseman (I said Poolman above, but there are others out there). That makes it an even 8 mill for a pair of top 9 forwards and a backup.

We can also still open up the possibility that Kerfoot or Dermott are moved. I don't think you will get much in terms of cap savings vs. their replacements though, so I kept them in.

Semyonov, Liljegren, and Anderson are the only rookies. Anderson has 53 games of NHL experience. Semyonov is turning 27 this year and has 377 games of KHL experience. Liljegren is our top prospect.

Brooks competes with Semyonov.
Simmonds competes with Anderson (mostly).
Robertson competes with everyone, but mostly Galchenyuk.
Sandin competes with Dermott and Liljegren.
Poolman competes with Liljegren.

1LW Candidates: Bunting (cheaper option), Saad (expensive option), Schwartz (expensive option), Janmark, Tatar, Granlund, Palmieri (expensive option), Parise (cheaper option), Coleman (expensive option).
3LW Candidates: McGinn, Armia, Brassard (cheaper option), Nosek (cheaper option), Haula, Foligno, Martinook (cheaper option), Granlund, Coleman (expensive option), keep Engvall (cheap option).
3C Candidates (if we move Kerfoot to LW or trade him): Nosek (cheaper option), Bozak, Stastny, Getzlaf, Haula, Bonino, Wennberg, Danault (expensive option).
3LD Candidates (if we move Dermott): Cole, Hjalmarsson, Nemeth, Goligoski, Murray, Forbort, McCabe.
Backup Candidates: Ullmark, Halak, Mrazek, Bernier

 

[TheGroceryStick]

Trade Kefoot, Engvall, possibly Rielly.
Hyman for some LTIR help (Klefbom)

Add some beef..Hopefully a threatening shot too. Our PP was quite literally just as disappointing as anything.

Bertuzzi- Matthews - Nylander
Robertson - Tavares - Marner
Galchenyuk - Jenner - Mikhayev
Simmonds - Spezza - Anderson
Brooks

Muzzin - Jones
Dermott - Brodie
Sandin - Holl
Liljgren

Campbell
Rittich

 

[ShaneFalco]

Honestly, you can't guarantee anything. If you could there would be no point to them playing the games.

Some teams take a really long time to finally break through.

Take a look who they played in the 1st round last 5 seasons.

2017 - Wash - 2nd round, but heavy contenders
2018 - Bos - 2nd round, but heavy contenders
2019 - Bos - Finals
2020 - CBJ - Lost to cup Champs (this on was bad)
2021 - MTL - Finals

Bad luck, maybe. Not good enough, maybe. This is likley the last chance with this group, which is exactly when some other teams finally broke through (not proclaiming anything).

Other teams won playoff rounds and didn't look like they were playing exhibition games at the most important times. More excuses

 

[17 Clark]

Not in this reality. Not for the Leafs GM or any other GM out there. Besides that, there are few fatal flaws in your scenario:

1) Nylander was not taking a bridge.

William Nylander says he 'didn't want a bridge deal' from Maple Leafs - Sportsnet.ca

2) McKenzie was talking like Marner's bridge deal would have been at least 9 mill.

Bob McKenzie breaks down a potential Marner bridge deal

Plus since it almost certainly would have been a high 3rd year with a QO, the AAV likely would have been similar to what it is right now but you buy 0 UFA years.

All to save 2 mill in cap space for 3 years, which is the best you would have mustered.

I think Dubas made the better choices.

You do not ever say your comments or show your cards like he did It’s kind like poker why would you show people what you have in your hand before they place a bet

 

[ShaneFalco]

There is a school of thought that when you have four forwards making up half of your cap, it is too hard to win. How do you respond to that?
Dubas: The criticism is fair. I don’t know the exact number off of the top of my head. I think Pittsburgh, between 2007-2010, had a similar breakdown. I don’t think it was all forwards, but they had a similar sort of cap concentration among the top three or four guys at that time on their club. I understand the reason why folks would look at that and say that they don’t think we can win with that cap construction. It has not been done.
The reality is that it wasn’t the plan from the outset. When we looked at it, prior to the pandemic, the cap was going to continue to rise. We would have our core guys locked up for between five and seven years, and the percentage of cap would change as it went on. Unfortunately, the pandemic happened. It affected people outside of athletics and professional sports far more than it has impacted us. But we have to adapt to it.
By moving out the players that we really like, I don’t think we would find better players than them. It falls on me and our management team to find the pieces around the group that can contribute to having it break through.
https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2021/07/22/kyle-dubas-on-toronto-maple-leafs-depth/

Not adapting at all and has a fear of change

 

[ShaneFalco]

You have about $9.5 million in cap space. You have 10 forwards, six defensemen, and a goalie under contract. If it is either Hyman or a Hyman replacement and a goalie, you don’t have a lot of space, right?
Dubas: I think that is probably fair. You are alluding to basically one more spot on the forward group. I think we will also look to increase our depth on defense and really look at depth players, which are sort of interchangeable in terms of the cap as long as they are below a certain threshold, in order to improve our depth up front as well. I think you will see a lot of those moves from us.
The key focus is what you alluded to up front and in goal. We view it as having a little bit more flexibility than that. Between guys who were here last year or various free agents, as we have gone through this process, we have a pretty extensive list of guys that we feel for lower dollars can come in and really challenge on the forward front. We can have a little bit more flexibility at the top of our forward lineup as well

https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2021/07/22/kyle-dubas-on-toronto-maple-leafs-depth/

 

[Trapper]

There is a school of thought that when you have four forwards making up half of your cap, it is too hard to win. How do you respond to that?
Dubas: The criticism is fair. I don’t know the exact number off of the top of my head. I think Pittsburgh, between 2007-2010, had a similar breakdown. I don’t think it was all forwards, but they had a similar sort of cap concentration among the top three or four guys at that time on their club. I understand the reason why folks would look at that and say that they don’t think we can win with that cap construction. It has not been done.
The reality is that it wasn’t the plan from the outset. When we looked at it, prior to the pandemic, the cap was going to continue to rise. We would have our core guys locked up for between five and seven years, and the percentage of cap would change as it went on. Unfortunately, the pandemic happened. It affected people outside of athletics and professional sports far more than it has impacted us. But we have to adapt to it.
By moving out the players that we really like, I don’t think we would find better players than them. It falls on me and our management team to find the pieces around the group that can contribute to having it break through.
Kyle Dubas: "We have to be able to really excel in the depth areas... We haven't done that as well in the past, and it is on me" | Maple Leafs Hotstove

Not adapting at all and has a fear of change

Dubas: The criticism is fair. I don’t know the exact number off of the top of my head. I think Pittsburgh, between 2007-2010, had a similar breakdown. I don’t think it was all forwards”

This is an issue as well. As soon as we signed Tavares, we didn’t need to pay 4 forwards half the cap.

Nylander + Marner = 18 mil.
4 wingers at 5 million = 20.

Sorry Marner may be a great passer but Matthews is still going to score 40 goals without him and flanked by 2 5 mil wingers.

Or we find a top pairing D and goalie instead of an 11 mil winger.

 

[egd27]

Not in this reality. Not for the Leafs GM or any other GM out there. Besides that, there are few fatal flaws in your scenario:

1) Nylander was not taking a bridge.

William Nylander says he 'didn't want a bridge deal' from Maple Leafs - Sportsnet.ca

2) McKenzie was talking like Marner's bridge deal would have been at least 9 mill.

Bob McKenzie breaks down a potential Marner bridge deal

And I will counter with the fatal flaw in your argument is that the GM is under no obligation to acquiesce to the "wants" of players while negotiating contracts.

Though that seems lost on both the current GM and many of his supporters.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Thing is too, he overpaid. As it stands now, I think an argument could me made that MMalone is 3-3.5 mill overpaid.

 

[ACC1224]

And I will counter with the fatal flaw in your argument is that the GM is under no obligation to acquiesce to the "wants" of players while negotiating contracts.

Though that seems lost on both the current GM and many of his supporters.

He may be the only GM in the history of sport who never has any choice in anything he does.
Seems like a pretty easy gig.

 

[bentharbs]

10 mill can go a long way in a flat-cap year when 70% of teams literally don’t want to spend money and you have your top 4 written in stone.