Salary Cap: Toronto Maple Leafs 2015-16

[indigobuffalo]

Current roster assuming no further FA signings/waiver claims.

I'll adjust line configurations later once we have a clearer picture of those, but the main point of this thread is to discuss the salary cap and it's impact on the Leafs.

One of the main points of discussion I would like to promote is getting everyone to look at player cap hits in terms of total percentage of the team's salary cap, rather than the dollar amount.

The reason for this is that contracts usually last multiple seasons, and the cap max fluctuates year-to-year. As a result, what may seem like a bloated contract right now may look at lot better in a few years' time.

Forwards: ($33.475M or 46.88%)

Joffrey Lupul ($5.25M or 7.35%)
Nazem Kadri ($4.1M or 5.74%)
James van Riemsdyk ($4.25M or 5.95%)

Daniel Winnik ($2.25M or 3.15%)
Tyler Bozak ($4.2M or 5.88%)
Brad Boyes ($0.7M or 0.98%)

Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau ($1.5M or 2.1%)
Peter Holland ($0.775M or 1.08%)
Michael Grabner ($3.0M or 4.2%)

Leo Komarov ($2.95M or 4.13%)
Nick Spaling ($2.2M or 3.08%)
Shawn Matthias ($2.3M or 3.22%)

Defensemen: ($17.641M or 24.7%)

Dion Phaneuf ($7M or 9.80%)
Matt Hunwick ($1.2M or 1.68%)

Morgan Rielly ($1.744M or 2.44%)
Scott Harrington ($0.897M or 1.25%)

Jake Gardiner ($4.05M or 5.67%)
Roman Polak ($2.75M or 3.85%)

Extra Skaters: ($2.5M or 3.50%)
Mark Arcobello ($1.1M or 1.54%)
Frank Corrado ($0.700M or 0.98%)
Martin Marincin ($0.700M or 0.98%)

Goalies: ($6.45M or 9.03%)

Jonathan Bernier ($4.15M or 5.81%)
James Reimer ($2.3M or 3.22%)

Buyouts/Salary Retentions: ($3.233M or 4.52%)
Tim Gleason ($1.833M or 2.56%), Phil Kessel ($1.2M or 1.68%), Carl Gunnarsson ($0.2M or 0.28%)

Total Cap Hit: $63.299M or 88.65%
Remaining Cap Space: $8.101M

N.B. I'm speculating that the extra skaters will be Arcobello, Corrado, and Marincin, although we won't know until the roster is actually posted. Also, Robidas is assumed to be on LTIR.

 

[Canada4Gold]

if you're sending Arcobello down and assuming he clears waivers his contract his 1.1 million so a small portion of it would count against the cap hit. I think it's 1.1 - 0.925 so 0.175 but it might be contract less 0.950 now I'm not sure.

Frattin will likely go down before him anyway.

 

[indigobuffalo]

if you're sending Arcobello down and assuming he clears waivers his contract his 1.1 million so a small portion of it would count against the cap hit. I think it's 1.1 - 0.925 so 0.175 but it might be contract less 0.950 now I'm not sure.

Frattin will likely go down before him anyway.

My bad, was typing this all up at 2am during a night-time bottle feeding, lol. Fixed.

 

[LeafalCrusader]

Think it looks something like this. Give us a bit under 6 million to work with

https://www.hockeyscap.com/armchair-gm/team/36503

 

[paulhiggins]

Think it looks something like this. Give us a bit under 6 million to work with

https://www.hockeyscap.com/armchair-gm/team/36503

Nice table! Thanks.

 

[Faltorvo]

Think it looks something like this. Give us a bit under 6 million to work with

https://www.hockeyscap.com/armchair-gm/team/36503

There is one thing that I don't get ATM

IIRC the roster has to be cap compliant before the season starts and Hortons LTIR "BUFFER" does not activate or become available till 24 hr ish after the team must be cap compliant

and if that's the case, then we only have 1.2m in cap space right now and will have the 5.9m flexibility after the season starts.

 

[trellaine201]

Wow I can't believe we spent that much for this group lol

I wasn't really following day to day but wow. $65M for that.

 

[Faltorvo]

Let me see if I have this right

we basically under paid/termed kadri/berny on their deals

chose to let franson go because we could not meet his contract demands

could have still been stuck with 6.8m more of kessels hit and clarksons 5.5m cap hit

and here we are with just 1.2m in cap space before the season starts
AFTER
not inking a single contract of note from the UFA market? all the while producing a horrible basement dwelling team.


LOLZ and folks had the nerve to argue for the last few years that this team was not in cap hell hahahahahaha

 

[Ricky Bobby]

So no cap issues?

We've got 1 salary retention spot available that I'm betting is used on either Grabner or Polak to get us a package.

Hopefully we can also pull a Brewer/Kolzig/Lombardi type deal where we take on a bad contract to gain an asset.

 

[Faltorvo]

Wow I can't believe we spent that much for this group lol

I wasn't really following day to day but wow. $65M for that.

just goes to show how dion/bozo/lups/robidas are over paid

and the sins of our past disastrous regimes SRT + buyouts add up to 3.2 million wasted cap

We still have the 19th ish highest cap hit in the league and arguably the worst roster in the league

THATS the cap hell I have been talking about for the past 2 years.

 

[gabeliscious]

Wow I can't believe we spent that much for this group lol

I wasn't really following day to day but wow. $65M for that.

to be fair, there really arent that many "bad" contracts.

lupul -$5.25 x 3 years
robidas - $3 x 2 years
phaneuf- $7 x 6 years

other then the above there is no any really brutal contracts. almost half the roster is either a ufa or rfa after this season.

$65 million sounds like a lot but it is like $3 million x player. if you look at the leafs roster there are a bunch of people making $3ish and then a few outliers either above or below. there is no toews at $10.5 or even kessels at $8.

all in all i think management did a good job cap wise with the team this year.

 

[Ricky Bobby]

just goes to show how dion/bozo/lups/robidas are over paid

and the sins of our past disastrous regimes SRT + buyouts add up to 3.2 million wasted cap

We still have the 19th ish highest cap hit in the league and arguably the worst roster in the league

THATS the cap hell I have been talking about for the past 2 years.

It's going to take time to clean up the mess.

It wasn't all going to happen in one trade deadline and off-season.

Gleason buyout, Komarov, Lupul, Bozak 4.2 are all due to come off the books at the same time which conveniently is around the time guys like Nylander, Brown, Marner, Kapanen will be ready for elevated roles in the lineup.

Robidas is due to see his deal expire after next season but I'm betting he's moved after July 1st when his signing bonus kicks in. After he collects his signing bonus he's only owed 1 million.

 

[Ricky Bobby]

to be fair, there really arent that many "bad" contracts.

lupul -$5.25 x 3 years
robidas - $3 x 2 years
phaneuf- $7 x 6 years

other then the above there is no any really brutal contracts. almost half the roster is either a ufa or rfa after this season.

$65 million sounds like a lot but it is like $3 million x player. if you look at the leafs roster there are a bunch of people making $3ish and then a few outliers either above or below. there is no toews at $10.5 or even kessels at $8.

all in all i think management did a good job cap wise with the team this year.

They definitely did. We should be spending to the cap every year to accumulate assets. Cap space can't be carried forward. People get to hung up on the cap in the short term. It'd be great to say we've got a lot of cap space but to spend wisely on what?

Bringing in short term guys like Matthias, Winnik, Grabner, Spaling who all make 2+ was the right move.

 

[Myke]

My bad, was typing this all up at 2am during a night-time bottle feeding, lol. Fixed.

You type extremely well for someone who is still bottle fed! Kudos!

 

[Faltorvo]

to be fair, there really arent that many "bad" contracts.

lupul -$5.25 x 3 years
robidas - $3 x 2 years
phaneuf- $7 x 6 years

other then the above there is no any really brutal contracts. almost half the roster is either a ufa or rfa after this season.

$65 million sounds like a lot but it is like $3 million x player. if you look at the leafs roster there are a bunch of people making $3ish and then a few outliers either above or below. there is no toews at $10.5 or even kessels at $8.

all in all i think management did a good job cap wise with the team this year.

It's not really just about "bad" contracts though

the thought that we only have about 3 to 4 million more in cap space then the power house/ true cup contenders in the league , so many teams that we are not even in the same league as , it just shows how bad it was.

If you only have 3/4m more cap space then true cup contenders, then someone is making to much money

I agree, the new regime has definitely made some solid strides toward correcting our cap hell , we still have 4 players IMO that have to be shipped out to fully correct it.

 

[ACC1224]

Salary cap isn't a concern nor has it been for sometime.

 

[AINEC*]

Think it looks something like this. Give us a bit under 6 million to work with

https://www.hockeyscap.com/armchair-gm/team/36503

Every time I'm reminded we bought out Grabovski I shake my head.

Hopefully a bunch of those impending UFAs can be flipped for something. Reimer, Polak, Parenteau, Boyes, Arcobello, Matthias. That's a lot of (not so talented) bodies coming off the books. The cap space is fairly meaningless to a team in this situation, so here's hoping to some decent asset management at least.

 

[trellaine201]

to be fair, there really arent that many "bad" contracts.

lupul -$5.25 x 3 years
robidas - $3 x 2 years
phaneuf- $7 x 6 years

other then the above there is no any really brutal contracts. almost half the roster is either a ufa or rfa after this season.

$65 million sounds like a lot but it is like $3 million x player. if you look at the leafs roster there are a bunch of people making $3ish and then a few outliers either above or below. there is no toews at $10.5 or even kessels at $8.

all in all i think management did a good job cap wise with the team this year.

Agreed. I was just shocked that they could be so close to the cap with this group of players. I can see why there trying to shed more salary.

 

[paulhiggins]

Let's just hope Lupul stays healthy, plays up to his capabilities and increases his trade value. What's left that's not good is Nonis's fault.

 

[indigobuffalo]

The Phaneuf contract isn't so bad either.

Right now it is at its worst. He should regain some of his production, under Babcock/Lemaire and he will look more and more deserving of the contract.

And, as the cap goes up, his contract (percentage of total cap hit) will shrink and shrink.

The NHL still hasn't fully increased the cap from the Rogers media rights deal, and then there is the MLB.com deal as well!

So we could reasonably expect to see the cap hit $80M or higher in the next few years.

At $80M, Phaneuf's contract is only 8.75% of the team's total cap. That's a redux of over 1% just with cap inflation.

Here's a different way to look at it. If the cap was $80M when Phaneuf was negotiating his extension, his cap hit would have been $7.84M, instead of $7M.

Or at least closer to that number. Players, agents and GMs negotiate based on these percentages, rather than crude numbers.

People will probably never like the Phaneuf deal, but at least the term will keep his cap hit from climbing over his peak performance years.

That's why the Kadri deal was so insane. His new contract will force the Leafs to trade him.