The Leafs’ Salary Cap Situation
July 10th, 2009 | by jays1992 |
By Paul Bruno
To understand what Bryan Burke has done so far and understand how much flexibility he has at this time, we need to crunch some numbers.
Heading into this weekend, the Leafs have extended contracts to 23 players and we will break down our analysis by position (cap hit in brackets).
Goalies
They have Vesa Toskala ($4 M) and Jonas Gustavsson ($810 K)
Defense
Komisarek (4.5M), Kaberle (4.25M), Beauchemin (3.8M), Schenn (875 K), Van Ryn (2.9M), Finger (3.5M), Exelby (1.725 M), White (950 K)
Forwards
Blake (4M), Hagman (3M), Grabovski (2.9M), Stempniak (2.5M), Ponikarovsky (2.105M), Stajan (1.7M), Kulemin (1.488), Mayers (1.333), Orr (1.0), Mitchell (487 K)
Minor Leaguer Jiri Tlusty, free agent signees Christian Hanson and Rickard Wallin each carry the entry level hit of 810K each.
All told the current Leaf Roster comes in at about $53M, which includes a bonus cushion of around $3M. This leaves Brian Burke with an estimated $6.5M to spend under this year’s cap. Next year, the Cap will likely be reduced and the Leafs are in great shape, from that standpoint, as well. They have commitments to only 9 players for $27M in a year where the Cap may drop significantly.
We have already highlighted how a couple of other clubs have got themselves right up against the Cap this year and certainly are faced with Cap issues next year. The Leafs are in great shape to capitalize on that scenario, too.
Our expectation is that Burke has a couple of moves left this summer.
First, a glut of NHL defensemen on the Leaf blueline leaves him well-positioned to deal a blueliner (Kaberle?) for a top 6 forward.
Second, some teams will be looking to possibly off-load a big salary and Burke is in a position to take that on (how about Ryan Malone from Tampa?).
Brian Burke has quickly transformed this roster and retained financial flexibility. It’s been a long while since any Leaf GM has been this well-positoned, under the Salary Cap.
Tags: brian burke, NHL Salary Cap, Ron Wilson, Toronto Maple Leafs
By CHRIS on Jul 13, 2009
I really like what burke is doing I think this team could be a contender for 2010/2011 the Leafs have already reshaped the D core and turned it from one of the worst in the NHL to one of the top 5 in the NHL and they did that in about a week.
with just 27 mil comitted to next season they can do the same next offseason to the offense with guys like Marleau, Kolvalchuk, hejduk, frolov and others set to hit the market
and in doing so could be a contender in 2010/2011