Toronto Maple Leafs

Wow - Didn’t See That Coming

Ok so the Habs just traded away their best prospect in Ryan McDonagh, and one of their young centres in Chris Higgins, just to obtain an overpaid 2nd line centre in Scott Gomez.  He’s a good puck distributing player, but he isn’t worth over $7 million a season.

Thing is, they still have $30 million in cap space, and they’ve only got 6 forwards, 4 defense men, and 2 goalies under contract.  They have 4 forward RFA’s to sign, and other than that they’re in the clear.  They’re going to be building this thing from the ground up apparently.

They still need at least two centres, two left wingers, three right wingers, AND 2 defense men, MINIMUM.  I think Bob Gainey is a bit crazy for leaving this many slots to fill from the open market personally… but we’ll see how it works out.  Later this year he’ll be judged.

The Flames signed Bouwmeester, and the Oilers traded for Heatley, giving up Cogliano, Penner, and Smid in the process.

So where does that leave things?

Despite what is being said about the Leafs having lots of cap space, I think this has been a bit misleading to Leafs fans.  Montreal has over $30 million in cap space; Vancouver has over $22 million in cap space; Tampa Bay has $14 million in cap space; Phoenix has $20 million in cap space; the New York Rangers have $22 million in cap space; the New York Islanders have $23 million in cap space; the New Jersey Devils have $14 million in cap space; Nashville has $22 million in cap space; Minnesota has $12 million in cap space; Los Angeles has $14 million in cap space; Florida has $14 million in cap space; Columbus has $16 million in cap space; Chicago has $18 million in cap space; Atlanta has $24 million in cap space; and Anaheim has $18 million in cap space.

That means that exactly half the teams in the NHL have either the same amount of, or more, cap space than the Leafs do.  Now obviously a few of those teams won’t be spending to the cap (i.e. Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Florida, and Atlanta all come to mind).  But that still leaves at least 10 teams that can offer either more money to the available players that are out there, or add more pieces than the Leafs can.

In some instances, they’re still filling out a roster, so they can’t go crazy.  Montreal has a lot of slots to fill, so going gang busters this afternoon makes no sense.  The Canucks need 4 forwards, and 2 defense men.  The Rangers have 6 RFAs to sign and still need one more forward.  Nashville only has 7 forwards under contract and needs to re-sign 2 RFAs also.  Chicago only has 7 forwards under contract, but they have 5 RFA forwards and a single RFA defender to sign, they also need to find a back up for Cristobal Huet.

So in the end, the main teams competing with Toronto for top end talent will be the likes of Minnesota, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Anaheim.  Toronto still needs to find a back up for Toskala, and they should be in the hunt for some forwards.  They’ve got 8 defenders signed to NHL contracts already, so they should be able to peddle a couple of those into more cap room - namely Kaberle and Kubina - at some point over the summer.

Because of all the available options to the players, don’t expect everything to be settled this afternoon.  The top end guys might sign right away, but a few may take a wait and see approach to figure out where they have the best chance to fit in with players they want to play with, and play a role they see themselves succeeding in.

It’s going to be interesting, but I’m not sure anyone can tell you where anyone is going to end up by the beginning of next season.  All I know is, the NHL is going to look a lot different next season.