{"id":55179,"date":"2025-07-10T21:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T21:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/55179\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T21:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T21:57:12","slug":"what-should-the-maple-leafs-do-with-all-their-extra-salary-cap-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/55179\/","title":{"rendered":"What should the Maple Leafs do with all their extra salary-cap space?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, we did say it was going to be an interesting offseason<\/a> for the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

So far, it\u2019s played out that way, well beyond the expected Mitch Marner departure. Probably the most notable thing about the Leafs\u2019 offseason, however, is just how little they\u2019ve really done. Other than re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies to reasonable deals, and trading for Nicolas Roy and Matias Maccelli, everything is basically the same as last season.<\/p>\n

Not really a DNA change at this point, other than the fact that the Core Four era is finally over and the Marner distraction has been removed from the equation.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s fascinating, too, is just how much cap room the Leafs still have, as we sit here 10 days into free agency. Once they send down Ryan Reaves after training camp, dropping his cap hit to just $200,000, there\u2019s a ton of flexibility, more than most teams that made the postseason last year.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I have the roster lined up at the moment, with some caveats below.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a full lineup, one short of the roster max \u2014 and that\u2019s without restricted free agent Nick Robertson and prospect Easton Cowan in the mix.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a lineup that\u2019s not as robust as last year, simply because of the loss of Marner. But there are enough NHL players here, especially if Cowan excels in camp, that they could theoretically enter the season like this, see what they have, and decide how to use their $6 million at that point. That should still be a competitive, playoff-bound team, even if winning the Atlantic feels more unlikely.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s risk with that roster. But there\u2019s opportunity, too, and my sense is the front office is far from done.<\/p>\n

It just might take a while for more things to get done.<\/p>\n

If these are the players they have to work with to start the year, I think prioritizing a third line that can both score and defend has to be at the top of the list. Roy wasn\u2019t an Art Ross candidate in Vegas, but he did have 42 goals and 102 points in 206 games over the past three seasons, the equivalent of 17 goals and 41 points per 82 games, most of which came at even strength while playing decent minutes against decent competition.<\/p>\n

Playing him with pure checkers doesn\u2019t make sense. But you also want to be able to use that line in defensive zone starts and against tough competition, so having offence-first wingers such as Max Domi down there doesn\u2019t really fit either.<\/p>\n

Something to keep in mind when deciding who plays with Auston Matthews and John Tavares further up the lineup.<\/p>\n

I can see the case for either Maccelli or Domi as a pass-first winger on the first line, and either one of those two (or Bobby McMann) with Tavares and William Nylander. But we\u2019re so far from camp, and I\u2019m expecting other moves to be made, that it probably doesn\u2019t make sense to focus too much on line combinations right now.<\/p>\n

One player the Leafs have been connected to<\/a> the past few days is Jack Roslovic, another offence-focused winger who can play a little centre. He scored 22 goals for Carolina last year, but also fell out of favour as the season wore on in part due to his defensive lapses and misplays with the puck, leading to games as a healthy scratch in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

I think this one is roughly 50-50 right now, but it sounds like the ball is in the Leafs\u2019 court here, in that he\u2019s interested in the opportunity. And I don\u2019t think it would cost a lot, in terms of dollars or term.<\/p>\n

Our player cards had Roslovic\u2019s market value last season<\/a>\u00a0at around $2.6 million; if he signs for something in that range \u2014 it could even be closer to $2.85 million, accounting for the cap going up \u2014 then I could see it making sense as another option to give them offence down the lineup instead of the Steven Lorentz-David K\u00e4mpf-Calle J\u00e4rnkrok-Michael Pezzetta no-goal crew.<\/p>\n

Where it could especially make sense is if GM Brad Treliving can subtract someone such as K\u00e4mpf\u2019s $2.4 million cap hit and earmark a big chunk of that for Roslovic. That would still leave them with plenty of cap wiggle room to add a bigger difference maker to play with Matthews at some point and still inject a few more goals and playmaking on the third or fourth line.<\/p>\n

If you can, at some point, put Maccelli and someone like Roslovic on the third line, for example, you can see a way they get far more scoring from their top nine and attempt to replace some of Marner\u2019s impact down the lineup.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Plus, there\u2019s additional flexibility with this group in that you could trade out J\u00e4rnkrok and open up closer to $8 million, if you need it. Or to punch a bigger hole for Robertson or Cowan to help give you even more offensive creativity in those depth minutes.<\/p>\n

While it feels like the Leafs currently have too much cap room, that isn\u2019t unique if you look around the league. Because of the meagre state of free agency this year<\/a>, other potential playoff teams such as Winnipeg, Carolina, Minnesota, Utah and Detroit would all rather have more talent and less money to spend than they do right now. But there\u2019s just not a lot out there at the moment.<\/p>\n

Being patient in this environment isn\u2019t the worst play, given there will surely be more options shaking loose at some point in the first few months of next season. And the added benefit is your cap space accrues throughout the year<\/a>, so that $5 million (or whatever it ends up being) can balloon to double or triple that fairly quickly.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I find it hard to give Treliving a grade beyond an \u201cincomplete\u201d for the offseason because this still feels like an unfinished puzzle. If he finds a way to land another difference maker up front with all of that extra cash, even if it\u2019s in the middle of the season, it\u2019s going to be a decent grade. If he doesn\u2019t, it all feels like a roll of the dice that they\u2019ll be able to add that player during the season, as teams that get off to poor starts begin selling off assets.<\/p>\n

The best thing I can say about their summer so far is that they haven\u2019t really made any major mistakes. The worst thing is they haven\u2019t really taken any big swings yet, and it\u2019s likely going to take a move like that \u2014 something creative and outside the box, using their few significant trade assets \u2014 to set this team up for success.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s worth noting that the Panthers\u2019 two biggest moves of last season were adding Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, and those more than $13 million in additions were only possible because they had a ton of cap room open up late in the year. Rather than counting on a fortuitous LTIR situation<\/a>, however, the Leafs can create their own luck by entering the season with some extra space, space that will expand over time and give them real options.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also plausible that they can get a few pleasant surprises from players who are either new to the team (Roy, Maccelli, Cowan and perhaps Roslovic) or had down years last season (Matthews, Domi and Robertson) and have this group generate offence more by committee than they have in the past. If they don\u2019t make their big move before mid-September, it\u2019s going to set up a training camp with a ton of questions to be answered and a lot of open spots for players to battle for. That\u2019s not always a bad thing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly a lot different than the same stale story we\u2019ve had entering the fall in the past. And we\u2019ll likely be on \u201cbig-move\u201d watch throughout the year, too.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for me for a while as I head west to spend time with family and friends. A big thank you to everyone who followed along with our coverage this year, with all of our stories and the podcast.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for some great coverage as we kick off our 10th season (!) on the Leafs beat at The Athletic in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

(Photo of Jack Roslovic taking a shot on Joseph Woll: James Guillory \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, we did say it was going to be an interesting offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":55180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,1304,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-55179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114831180360583718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}