5 ways the Toronto Maple Leafs can save cap space

The Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves up against the salary cap and need to re-sign key forwards Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen, and Andreas Johnsson. Here is how they can find the cap space.

The Toronto Maple Leafs took the Boston Bruins to the seventh game in their opening round series. The Bruins appear headed to a possible Stanley Cup without running into an opponent that gave them a tougher time.

Clearly, the Maple Leafs have a strong team. Their 100 point regular season was actually the third highest total in franchise history. They have an opportunity to do something in the near future that they haven’t done since 1967 (win a Stanley Cup) or at the very least since 2004 (win a playoff series.)

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However, they face some tough decisions to keep this team as competitive as possible while staying below the new salary cap ceiling. The cap is slated to rise slightly to about $82-83 million.

Assuming it sits at $83 million, the Leafs currently have about $8.8 million in cap space. Add to that the Nathan Horton salary that is certain to be put on long term injury reserve and the Leafs have about $14 million to play with.

It sounds like a lot of money. Okay, $14 million is a lot of money. It sounds like a lot of room to make things work. Not so fast.

The Maple Leafs need to find a way to re-sign Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen, and Andreas Johnsson who are all restricted free agents. They also need to bring back or replace Jake Gardiner and Ron Hainsey, who are unrestricted free agents.

Marner will eat up most of the available cap space himself. So how are the Toronto Maple Leafs going to find a way to bring everyone back and continue the ascent this franchise has been on for the past three years?

Well, let’s take a look at five ways they can save a few bucks.

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.

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.