Salary cap space will always be king, and the Maple Leafs don’t have a lot of it right now, as David Alter explains.
Toronto Maple Leafs fans are feeling very frustrated these days by the current lack of roster flexibility within the team.
When the Florida Panthers placed star forward Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve, they opened up $9.5 million in salary cap space ahead of the Mar. 7 NHL trade deadline. And this was after the Panthers acquired defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks.
After these moves occurred, my X feed was flooded with Maple Leafs fans who were frustrated by the lack of Toronto’s ability to make these kinds of maneuvers. There’s a lot to unpack.
Tkachuk is Legitimately Injured
Anyone who watched the 4 Nations Face-Off could tell how injured the player was while representing the United States. Given all the talk of how significant that was for the Tkachuk brothers, the fact that he was limited in the final few games shows this is something the Panthers could not have foreseen.
The Maple Leafs Have Used LTIR Before to Their Advantage
Leafs fans are pretty quick to forget that Toronto did use their long-term injured reserve exception back in 2021 and took advantage of it by using the space afforded to them on an injury to goaltender Frederik Andersen. The Leafs used that cap space to bolster their lineup, including adding veteran winger Nick Foligno. It’s understandable that given the exorbitant price paid to get Foligno (a first-round pick was in that package) and the fact that Toronto went on to one of their worst playoff upsets in franchise history (losing in seven games to the heavy underdog Montreal Canadiens) it’s understandable that perhaps Toronto fans have mentally blocked this.
The NHL is Watching the use of LTIR
After seeing teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights use the salary cap to bolster their lineup, only to see key players return in time for Game 1 of the playoffs (where there is no cap), the NHL has made it a mission to heavily scrutinize when teams can use the long-term injury exception. Toronto doesn’t have any legitimate long-term injuries beyond what they currently have under their designation.
The Leafs have used the strategy of having depth ahead of time so that the trade deadline wouldn’t be a priority. That certainly doesn’t mean the Leafs aren’t looking and a lack of salary cap space doesn’t necessarily mean the club can’t swing for the fences. It just means that they have to go about it differently. It means the Leafs are probably going to have to use methods like double salary retention in order to bring a new player’s salary cap hit down by as much as 25 percent of the original hit. By doing that, it means the cost to bring guys in will be a lot more. Are the Leafs willing to part with prized assets like prospects Fraser Minten, Easton Cowan, Ben Danford and/or a first-round pick in a future draft (The Leafs don’t have their 2025 first-rounder)?
We’re about to find out what the Maple Leafs can and can’t do, but some more salary cap space would have certainly helped. The Panthers were able to get Jones from Chicago for goaltender Spencer Knight and a conditional first-round pick. They also got Chicago to retain $2.5 million per year in cap space. If the Panthers needed more retained, that cost certainly would have gone up. These trades don’t come easy for Toronto and they probably never will. But there is time, and with time comes opportunity.