The Toronto Maple Leafs are undoubtedly within their Stanley Cup contention window right now. Their forward core is among the most talented in the league, their defence was greatly improved over the offseason, and they’re receiving quality goaltending for the most part from Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll. On the flip side to that, their window is shortening season by season, especially after the recent Jake McCabe extension. Their salary cap is tight as it is, and it isn’t going to get any easier from a cap management perspective for the foreseeable future. In addition to that, age is not on their side as a team, and their depleted pipeline won’t be of aid to that.
Salary Cap Situation Will Only Worsen
As abysmal as the Maple Leafs’ current salary cap situation is, it’s likely the best that it’s going to be for a considerable amount of time, barring some unpredictable player movement. For one, now first-line power winger Matthew Knies is going to command a significant raise from his entry-level contract, with projections citing the Juraj Slafkovsky and Alexis Lafrenière contracts as the framework for his next deal. Mitch Marner is in the last year of his contract, and considering that he’s consistently outperformed fellow Maple Leaf winger William Nylander in terms of point production throughout his career, it’s a reasonable assumption to make that Marner’s next deal will surpass his in value. Marner has been subject to scrutiny throughout his career, but the underlying statistics and production speak for themselves and his superstardom is truly worth the price tag.
Beyond those two major contracts, several Maple Leafs players are looking for minor raises from their current contracts. Conor Timmins will command a slight increase from his current $1.1 million average annual value (AAV) arrangement considering his solid play. Connor Dewar should see a slight uptick from the $1.18 million he makes. If he stays, Max Pacioretty will likely get a slight step-up from his sub-$1 million deal, as will Steven Lorentz and Nicholas Robertson. The point is, beyond the two projected mega-contracts, the Maple Leafs have a ton of work to get done for smaller but more numerous raises.
Related: 3 Names Surface in Recent Maple Leafs Trade Talks
The only positive coming after this season in terms of contracts is that ex-captain John Tavares‘ deal is expiring, and he’ll either be moving on to another team that will pay…
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