The summer is upon us, and with a very quiet August, now is a good time to take a look at the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ roster and evaluate what they have done. David Alter is on hand to do just that.
The big loss, of course, was losing Mitch Marner. The star opted to leave Toronto for the Vegas Golden Knights in a sign-and-trade that pays him $12 million U.S. per season.
Toronto, not directly replacing him, has opted to load up on depth. They acquired forwards Nicolas Roy, Matias Maccelli, and Dakota Joshua via trades, but no single player will replace what Marner did for the club in terms of minutes played and roles on both the power play and penalty kill. So, the Leafs could use someone to help on the top six.
Does it mean they have to have one in place by the time the regular season starts? Absolutely not. The departure of Marner allows for the opportunity to look at a redeployment up top. If there was an obvious direct replacement on the open market, perhaps the Leafs would have done it already. But the good news for the club is that they have a little over $2 million in salary cap space with a roster of 23 players. If they stay under that threshold for the duration of the season, they have the potential to bank money to acquire a big-money forward at the trade deadline if and when the opportunity arises.
Puckpedia.com, a website that goes into thorough details on the NHL’s salary cap, has a defined area for deadline cap space. According to them, the Leafs would have $8,775,872 in salary cap space at the deadline if they stay under the cap by $1,919,722 up until that point in the season. It works this way because when you are not in long-term injured reserve, you can actually accrue more cap space as the season moves along.
The Leafs haven’t had the luxury of being in this position since the 2022-23 season. The Leafs accrued cap space until just after the fourth game of the season. But that’s when Jake Muzzin was shelved with a career-ending neck injury and the Leafs were forced to put the player’s contract on long-term injured reserve. So long as the Leafs don’t continue to load up in the offseason, they should be able to remain under the cap and accrue space, even if injuries happen. The number is based on a roster of 23 players, and it would take three or more injuries before a long-term injured reserve relief would be needed.
It’s very possible the Leafs could be presented with something between now and the beginning of the season that could fundamentally change what they do. The Leafs finished the regular season with a 52-26-4 record and won the Atlantic Division.
The loss of Marner may make it tough to win the division, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to struggle. The club has some depth, and if a top-tier offensive player is needed at the deadline, it may be easier for them to pull it off with lots of cap space to spare. The Leafs still have No. 34 and William Nylander.
The former needs a rebound of a season offensively. Who he plays with will be interesting. The prevailing wisdom is that Max Domi may get that first look since they played together when Marner was injured toward the end of the 2023-24 season. One more month until camp opens up.