$3,206,450. That’s how much cap friendly He says the foliage is over the salary cap. This number isn’t perfect but it doesn’t guarantee the amount of anxiety some people attach to it either. Sure, Ilya Samsonov still has to be signed and that’s why it’s worth taking a look at how the Leafs can get into a comfortable position to make it happen. And why she doesn’t need to involve William Nylander (nor should she).
The obvious starting point is that there is still something to be learned when it comes to Matt Murray. If Matt Murray goes LTIR, that immediately gives the Leafs $4,687,500 in relief. That didn’t appear to be the case, and Murray was medically cleared to be available for the playoffs. If Toronto should go the acquisition route, it only comes to $4 million in relief. There’s also a trade-in option, but paying a premium to avoid a not-so-bad buy seems a bit silly.
We’re going to play this conservative and say the Leafs are going the acquisition route and that would put the Leafs at $793k under the salary cap.
The next thing to consider is that CapFriendly is including Nick Robertson in the Leafs Injured Reserve and so the salary cap counts in their numbers. Given that Robertson doesn’t ask for waivers, it’s easy to exclude him from the salary cap and take him out of the picture (for now) The Leafs now have $1.59 million in cap space.
Doing so neatly from a start-of-the-year perspective, the Leafs have two more players on their roster that don’t require waivers: Pontus Holmberg and Matthew Knies. Putting them aside, at least the first day would put the Leafs at $3.315 million in cap space and that’s at least starting to look like a number the Leafs could work arbitration for Ilya Samsonov as a short-term fix. That number could rise to $4.006 million if the Leafs decide that Sam Lafferty and Conor Timmins should be waived in order to make extra space, and then the Leafs go with cheaper options in the last six.
This is starting to sound like hitting Samsonov’s hat and all for the gambling price on Timmins and/or Lafferty being claimed. And remember, there would probably be another $687,000 in there if Murray could be placed on long-term injury reserve.
Now all that said, the Leafs could still consider a trade. If William Nylander’s negotiations really aren’t going anywhere, it could be in the Leafs’ best interest that for Nylander to walk into free-for-nothing agency would be devastating.
Another asset that might be in the conversation is TJ Brodie, who is a $5 million cap but also one of the Leafs’ best defensemen. It was silly to talk about Brodie as a buy but not as important as a trade option because he’s also on an expiring contract and teams are handing out $4m+ contracts to guys like Ryan Graves, Radko Gudas, Shayne Gostisbehere and John Klingberg. There must be a market for Brody.
Given that it’s the Fourth of July and teams can max out on the salary cap by 10% ($8.35 million), the Leafs don’t have to rush anything. They have $5 million in space that can be used on Samsonov. It’s comforting to know the Leafs don’t need to be big for cap reasons, but with two months to kill before training camp, a little business speculation wouldn’t hurt either.