5 ways the Toronto Maple Leafs can save cap space

5. Trade Connor Brown

Connor Brown was a sixth-round draft pick by the Maple Leafs in 2012. He was coming off a decent OHL season with the Erie Otters where he scored 25 goals and 53 points in 68 games. He soon made every NHL general manager look foolish for allowing him to fall so far in the draft.

In the 2013-14 season, Brown scored 45 goals, 83 assists and (reaches for calculator) 128 points. Brown didn’t get a ton of attention because a certain 16 year old by the name of Connor McDavid happened to be a teammate.

Brown solidified his place as a full-time NHL winger in 2016-17 when he scored 20 goals as a rookie. He hasn’t missed a game in three full seasons and is now entering the final year of a three-year extension he signed after his 20 goal season.

The problem is, Brown has failed to come close to reaching 20 goals again and is set to earn $2.1 million next season. He has fallen to fourth on the Leafs depth chart at right wing and is just earning a bit too much money for a fourth line player.

The Toronto native scored eight goals and 29 points last season. His spot in the lineup could easily be filled by Trevor Moore who earns $775,000 or Nic Petan who takes in an identical paycheque as Moore.

Brown is 25 years old and has a 20 goal NHL season on his resume. The Leafs would not have a terribly difficult time finding him a new home, as long as they aren’t expecting a huge return. Trade him for a late round pick at the draft and be happy with the cap space it opens up.

4. Let the UFAs walk

This is going to be a tough one for Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas. The team only has four unrestricted free agents. The problem is, they don’t have the money to bring back any of them and two of them played prominent roles on the blue line.

Tyler Ennis had some flashes where he looked like a skilled winger who could put up points. At the end of the season, he had 12 goals and 18 points in 51 games. Martin Marincin suited up for 24 games and chipped in five points.

Losing those two won’t hurt that much. Ennis can be replaced by another veteran trying to prove he can still play in the NHL on a $650,000 contract like Ennis did this season. Marincin was the team’s eighth defender at best and can be replaced from within.

The trouble comes with the veteran defensemen. Ron Hainsey played most of the season on the top pairing with Morgan Rielly and was a key penalty killer. Jake Gardiner played most of the season on the second defense pairing and was on the second wave of the power play.

Plus-Minus is not the best stat in the NHL, but when you lead a high scoring team with a plus-30 like Hainsey did, it is noteworthy. He was the defensive conscience that finally allowed Rielly to reach career highs in points with 72. Gardiner was a plus-19, impressive considering many will tell you he doesn’t know how to defend at all. He put up 30 points in 62 games.

These players are going to be difficult to replace, but Dubas has to trust development will come from within. They have Rielly and he could play with Jake Muzzin instead of Hainsey. Maybe it takes some time to get used to, but the 37-year-old Hainsey can’t play there forever.

Gardiner has been a great, under-appreciated player for the Leafs, but his 0.50 points per game could be replaced by Travis Dermott as soon as next season. With Rasmus Sandin coming soon as well, Dubas has to have faith the youngsters can fill on the left side of the defense for Gardiner.

3. Trade Nikita Zaitsev

Nikita Zaitsev was a great find by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was brought out of obscurity playing in the KHL, to the fishbowl of Toronto and seemed to pass all the initial tests. He was a veteran of 300 KHL games but was undrafted and a relative unknown in North America when the Leafs signed him in the summer of 2016.

Identifying and signing the Russian right-shot defender was a great move by the Leafs brass. Zaitsev stepped in immediately and had a great rookie season at the age of 25. He had a few understandable growing pains, but put up 36 points in his first NHL season, his first season outside of Russia.

It was an impressive debut for the Moscow native. So impressive, Leafs management (Lou Lamoriello at the time) handed him a seven-year contract with a cap hit of $4.5 million. Zaitsev then followed up his solid freshman campaign with seasons of 13 and 14 points. He looked, at times this season, to be in over his head defensively and shrunk against the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs for the past two seasons.

He was the team’s fourth most used defenseman but is their second highest paid after Rielly. His $4.5 million is not money well spent on the Maple Leafs budget heading into next season. There are already rumors that he is looking for a fresh start somewhere else.

Zaitsev is a right-shot defender who is capable of contributing on the penalty kill. He’s not perfect, but he skates well, can move the puck, and has shown he can score nearly 0.5 points per game in the NHL.

He is an NHL defenseman, he just happens to be slightly overpaid for the next half-decade. Toronto won’t get much back because of the contract, but they’d breathe a huge sigh of relief to get out from under his salary cap hit.

2. Trade Patrick Marleau

Okay, this one is going to get weird but hear me out. Marleau is set to make $6.25 million against the salary cap next season. He turns 40 before next season starts and just had his worst offensive season since he was an 18-year-old rookie. His cap hit is worthy of a first line winger, but his 16 goals and 37 points suggest he is a third line winger.

The thing is, Toronto is very deep on the wing. In fact, they are very deep at forward, but as previously mentioned they are going to be running low on defensemen. Marleau has a full no-trade clause but might be willing to be head back to California after playing most of his career with the San Jose Sharks.

Here comes the weird part. Toronto can’t trade Marleau for a draft pick. No one will want to take on his huge cap hit. However, they could trade him for someone else’s problem contract. Marleau loves California. What if he was sent to the Los Angeles Kings for Dion Phaneuf?

Los Angeles is obviously close to San Jose. Todd McLellan was just named the Kings head coach and he was Marleau’s coach in San Jose for eight successful seasons. The Kings also have lots of cap space and could afford to eat about $2 million of Phaneuf’s current cap hit.

That would be a net gain of $3 million for the Leafs next season, and they would add a capable third pairing defenseman in Phaneuf who has played in the market before and knows exactly what to expect as a former captain of the team.

It would obviously be foolish to hope Phaneuf could return to his days of scoring 20 goals. However, he could help as a sixth or seventh defenseman next season who mentors players like Rasmus Sandin, Calle Rosen, or Timothy Liljegren, while saving cap space because Marleau is earning more in Los Angeles.

1. Trade William Nylander

William Nylander was the eighth overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. He spent the next four seasons proving to be an excellent selection by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He spent this past season sitting on the sidelines for an extended period and then struggling to prove he is worth his new deal.

Nylander and Dubas negotiated a deal at the last minute that will see the Swedish winger earn just under $7 million against the salary cap for the next five seasons.

After sitting out for the first two months, Nylander scored just 27 points in 54 games this season. He had scored 60 points in the two previous seasons. Nylander did not forget how to play hockey, but he was passed on the right side of the depth chart by Mitch Marner and Kasperi Kapanen.

If the Leafs want to re-sign Kapanen and Johnsson, and have the most flexibility possible this summer, their best bet to free up that cap space would be to trade Nylander.

As mentioned, they would still have solid depth at all three forward positions and could use the added space to upgrade their defense. Unlike the Marleau move, they would not have to take back a bad contract and could actually get a decent haul of picks or prospects for their 23 year old forward.

Dealing Nylander at the draft for a mid first round pick would get the Leafs out from his huge contract and allow them to add another top prospect to the pipeline.