Now that the Leafs officially signed Jani Hakanpaa, there is an overload on defence. But also, this means that the Toronto Maple Leafs are over the salary cap. According to PuckPedia, the they are over the salary cap by a little more than $1M. It is also expected that Max Pacioretty will sign with Toronto, adding to that salary cap debt. The minimum wage for an NHL player is $775K. So, that means that even if Pacioretty is signed after his professional tryout (PTO), that’s nearly another $1M that Toronto has to free up in salary cap space to round out their NHL roster.
Defence Overload
After being the general manager of the Maple Leafs for just over a year, it’s clear what Brad Treliving likes in his team. He loves big and heavy players, specifically defencemen. There were times during free agency and at the trade deadline last season that he was chasing after Nikita Zadorov, who fits that description perfectly. Bringing in Hakanpaa should be no surprise to anyone, as he is 6-foot-7 and over 220 pounds. He also believes there is no such thing as having too many defencemen. Last season, around the trade deadline, he said exactly that.
Leafs GM Brad Treliving: "You can never have too many defencemen, you just can’t if you want to get to where you want to get to"
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 1, 2024
The Depth Chart for Defence
Outside of the newest addition of Hakanpaa, Toronto has several depth D-men, some of them signed in free agency. Dakota Mermis and Philippe Myers were brought in by Treliving and signed to two-way deals for the league minimum. Meaning most of their time will be spent in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies. Nonetheless, they were brought in to fill in on the Leafs if called upon.
However, on top of those two players, there are others that shouldn’t be ignored when it comes to quality depth defencemen. If you want to look at some of the top D-men who can’t make it into the NHL roster, there are Conor Timmins and Marshall Rifai. Both of these blueliners have been in the organization for a couple of seasons now. Timmins has never played for the Marlies, as he’s usually a scratch who fills in for injuries on the Leafs. For the last two seasons, he’s played 25 games in each, scoring a total of 24 points. The 25-year-old (soon to be 26) is a great asset for Toronto and makes $1.1M.
As for Rifai, he has much less experience in the NHL, with just two games played for the Leafs. On the other hand, he signed a two-year year extension in the offseason with one year remaining on his contract. Therefore, that would mean that Treliving likes what he sees from Rifai, opening the possibility that he could be seen more in a Leafs sweater.
Transactions to Clear Salary Cap Space for the Toronto Maple Leafs
As mentioned, Toronto needs to clear some cap space to sign Pacioretty. The most popular option would be to bury Timmins’ $1.1M contract in the minors and put him on waivers. However, that won’t be enough to suffice, meaning Treliving will need to make more transactions, likely within the Leafs roster. Another option would be to look for a trade, and looking at the roster, there is one defenceman that would make sense to be moved. That D-man is Timothy Liljegren. Trading away Liljegren will free up exactly $3M in cap space and also a spot on the third pair, likely for Hakanpaa to fill. However, it could be a risky move to let go of the Swede since Hakanpaa’s health is in a shaky stage, given his knee injury.
There is another sneaky route that could transpire. There is some belief that the Maple Leafs could bury Hakanpaa’s contract on IR to start the year. This will give them some time to figure out the logistics of a cap solution and let the Hakanpaa heal. Or maybe nothing has to be done at all between now and the beginning of preseason. It will be a very competitive training camp in Toronto, and that could lead to injuries or other circumstances. Sometimes, when situations are played out, they solve themselves.
Main Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
