After two months of little action following the first day of NHL free agency, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager (GM) Brad Treliving got to work fleshing out the club’s roster in a 24-hour span. After agreeing to terms on a one-year deal with restricted free agent Nicholas Robertson, he brought in Max Pacioretty on a professional tryout (PTO) that feels like one in name only and finally ended all the Jani Hakanpaa confusion by signing the Finnish defenseman to a one-year, $1.47 million contract.
These moves all served to address some of the lingering questions that surrounded the Maple Leafs with training camp looming. Robertson and Pacioretty offer some answers to the depth concerns related to the left wing position, while Hakanpaa’s arrival ends a bizarre two-month saga where no one seemed particularly sure of the 32-year-old’s status within the organization.
As for how to afford to get everyone into the fold, that’s a problem for later. It seemed as though Pacioretty had actual guaranteed contract offers available to him, so his willingness to take a PTO would suggest that it is less of a genuine tryout (unlike Steven Lorentz) and more a means to buy time before having to make roster decisions to remain salary cap compliant. After the Maple Leafs’ late flurry of activity, the focus now shifts to what subsequent moves will be made to get under the $88 million cap.
Current Cap Situation
As it stands right now, Toronto is carrying a total cap figure of roughly $89.07 million, or $1.07 million over the threshold. That’s hardly a staggering figure and is a far cry from some of the financial gymnastics that Maple Leafs cap guru Brandon Pridham has had to do in the past. However, that figure doesn’t account for cap money allocated for Pacioretty. The 35-year-old’s new contract will likely be well shy of the $2 million deal he signed with the Washington Capitals last season, but will still require some offsetting moves.
With Robertson and Hakanpaa in tow, the Maple Leafs have 13 forwards and eight defencemen on the payroll counting towards the cap. If you add in two goaltenders, that takes the club right up to the 23-man roster limit that they will have to comply with in time for opening night. Pacioretty is notably absent in those totals, as is Lorentz and any potential additional training camp surprises, such as Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten and/or Alex Steeves.
Possible Cap Relief Options – Blue Line
In short, something has to give here before Toronto opens the regular season, whether that means a forthcoming trade or a player or two placed on waivers. While Treliving is probably looking at a number of options for how to become cap-compliant with minimal impact on the club from an on-ice standpoint, there are some clear candidates in jeopardy of losing their spot.
The signing of Hakanpaa added another depth piece to the blue line and, in all likelihood, left Toronto with one defenceman too many. The most obvious source of cap relief is Conor Timmins, who lacks a clear role on the roster beyond injury relief and has already faced plenty of speculation surrounding his exit from the club. Shedding his $1.1 million cap hit, either by trade or through waivers, would represent a near-perfect match to their current cap overage, although our own Old Prof recently noted why the Maple Leafs may not want to give up on the 25-year-old just yet.
Even unloading Timmins’ contract wouldn’t be enough to absorb Pacioretty’s forthcoming cap hit, so further creativity is needed, whether that’s in addition to parting ways with Timmins or as an alternative. A riskier move would be to unload Timothy Liljegren, whose $3 million cap hit in each of the next two seasons would offer significantly more relief but would also mean giving up on a young rearguard who still carries plenty of promise. Even with five seasons and nearly 200 NHL games under his belt, the 25-year-old Swede remains younger than Timmins and Simon Benoit. That said, his departure would likely free up enough room to sign Pacioretty and would probably net a trade asset in return.
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Possible Cap Relief Options – Forwards
By re-signing Robertson and adding Pacioretty, the Maple Leafs are now left with a glut of forwards to round out their roster. So who goes? Depending on what happens in camp and what the front office’s bigger vision is for the salary cap, the club could divest itself of a slightly larger cap hit or create a little bit of wiggle room by ridding themselves of a smaller hit.
On the larger hit side, you have fourth-line center David Kampf ($2.4 million) and Calle Jarnkrok ($2.1 million). While Jarnkrok offers valuable versatility and defence that would be difficult to replace, Kampf’s role could potentially be assumed by Lorentz at a cheaper rate. That said, both players still have term beyond this season, so they are probably both part of Toronto’s plans moving forward. Ditto for Ryan Reaves, who is still on the books for the next two seasons at an average annual value (AAV) of $1.35 million.
The Maple Leafs seem to value Bobby McMann ($1.35 million) enough that he isn’t likely on his way out, while Pontus Holmberg ($800,000) probably doesn’t carry a big enough cap hit to move the needle much.
The most interesting trade candidate might be the recently signed Robertson. The team has said all the right things in terms of being excited to offer the 23-year-old a fresh start and see what he can do under new head coach Craig Berube. However, the addition of Pacioretty would seem to once again limit his potential role within the forward corps. It’s entirely possible that Robertson’s one-year, $875,000 contract was agreed upon with a subsequent trade in mind.
The other variable in play here is what kind of case Cowan, Minten and other Leafs prospects make in camp. If they can stand out like they did in rookie camp (before Minten was sidelined for precautionary reasons, anyway), then Treliving could have more options at his disposal.
On the surface, the addition of Pacioretty (and, to a lesser extent, Hakanpaa) felt like a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want to land a six-time 30-goal-scorer on a bargain contract for no acquisition cost? Rarely, however, is the business side of hockey that simple. For a club pushing up against the salary cap, there was always going to be another shoe (or two) that needed to drop once Robertson, Hakanpaa and, eventually, Pacioretty joined the fold. The question now is who goes and will the incoming talent be worth the price of the cap casualties? At a time when the off-season heavy lifting is typically done, Treliving remains very busy.
