I must be missing something - isn’t it impossible for us to sign Marner until the season starts? My understanding is we can only go 10% over the cap in the offseason, and we can’t put guys on LTIR until the season starts. So we have to wait for the season to start, then put guys on LTIR, then sign Marner.
I’m guessing I have something wrong?
I think you are right, and it was all laid out when we traded for Clarkson. Im not 100% sure but I think trading for Clarkson means there is no benefit gained unless we sign marner on the opening night and not before.
As I say I stand to be corrected on this, but its something like that
I'm curious to know this too.
Leafs currently $2,897,199 Over the cap (3.6%) can only go over by another $5,252,801. On capfriendly with a 22 man roster.
Maybe moving around some contracts works or something ?
The Leafs are projected to be $2.9m over the regular season cap by CF. Keep in mind that includes assumptions about which players will be on the day 1 roster that might be incorrect. Plus it includes projections of players definitely going on LTIR and their replacements.
During the summer the cap is increased by 10%. It’s not technically correct to say “teams can go 10% over the cap in the summer” because the summer cap includes players that may not make the day 1 regular season roster. For example: all 1-way contracts are included, and all 2-way players are included based on the % of time they were on the roster the previous season.
I don’t have my notes handy, but iirc last time I looked at the Leafs they were approximately $3.5m under the summer $89.65m cap.
Teams can use LTIR in the summer, exactly the same as the regular season. Meaning the Leafs could activate $10.5m-$13.6m in LTIR space right now depending on whether Dermott and Hyman are eligible to go on LTIR during the summer. That’s more then enough space to sign Marner or match an Offer Sheet. Of course the Leafs really don’t want to dip into the Hyman/Dermott relief space because they’re not gone for the season.
When projected to be over the regular season cap as the Leafs are, teams have two options to become compliant:
a) Get below the cap before day 1, then use LTIR to make space on day 1
b) Be over the cap before day 1 and use LTIR on the last day of training camp to enter the season cap compliant.
The formulas for how much cap space is freed up via (a) or (b) differs and can be complicated. I can only recommend looking at the CF FAQ’s, there are too many variables in play that I can’t predict what’s optimal for the Leafs right now.
Having said that, if the Leafs have a deal agreed upon with Marner they could probably sign him now and exercise option (b) without losing much if any cap relief over option (a).
