The Boston Bruins, a team the Toronto Maple Leafs are currently chasing in the standings, put on a difficult show that evening.
And a difficult evening for Timothy Liljegren and TJ Brodie, in particular, who play defense.
Three days remain until the trade deadline, and all indications point to the Leafs trying to add more players by Friday at 3 p.m. They have also largely had the same needs throughout the season: additional support for the right defense and a different center option.
The fact that general manager Brad Treliving acquired Ilya Lyubushkin from the Anaheim Ducks last week is a major sign that he is still far from done. By handing the Carolina Hurricanes a sixth-round pick, the Leafs were able to negotiate a complex double retention contract that reduced Lyubushkin’s cap charge from $2.75 million to $687,500, which is $87,500 less than even the league minimum pay.
Treliving really didn’t need to take this action; even at Lyubushkin’s full salary, the Leafs had several other ways to free up cap money.
On the surface, it appears that Toronto is at capacity right now. For instance, even after demoting Nick Robertson, CapFriendly claims that they only have $152,000 in space.
With 13 forwards, 7 defensemen, 3 goaltenders, 2 players on injured reserve, and 3 more on long-term injured reserve, they have a pretty full roster as well.
Using the lineups they used against Boston, here is what the Leafs presently have.
Waivers are one of the easiest ways for the Leafs to free up additional space. The most likely option for this position is Noah Gregor, but they could also put Martin Jones or perhaps William Lagesson there and free up about $2.6 million in space in a day.
Salary retention (or even more double retention) combined with that opening in a deal would essentially mean an additional $5.2 million to $10.4 million in pay.
In essence, they can cover any gaps by relying solely on exemptions. On paper.
As far as we are aware, the Leafs’ lack of tradeable assets is the issue there. They only have four picks (two firsts and two thirds) in the first three rounds of the next three drafts, and they don’t have many elite prospects.
Additionally, it might become too expensive to give up more picks for double retention, particularly if they can find more cap space elsewhere in the roster.
Other ways to make money include the following:
1. Putting Mark Giordano ($800,000) on LTIR due to a head injury
2. Conor Timmins ($1.1 million), who has missed all but 16 games this season due to sickness, is being waived.
3. Making a deadline move by trading a different roster player
I could make out Liljegren.
By Thursday at 2:00 p.m., it will be advisable to place both Lagesson and Gregor on waivers. In this situation, where so many teams require help in the crease, I would hold onto Jones as insurance in goal and place both Giordano and Timmins on LTIR, if only temporarily. Jones will almost definitely be claimed.
Treliving would have $3.6 million and two roster spots to deal with on Friday at the deadline just from that alone.
It is possible to land a center and a right-shot D in that amount of space. Using two instances from the most recent trade board by Chris Johnston: Sean Walker of Philadelphia and Alex Wennberg of Seattle make $7.15 million apiece, so if they were both retained at 50%, they could both fill a void of $3.6 million.
If the Leafs lose out on the few true names available this year, there are plenty of less expensive possibilities that will also be available. At half salary, Lars Eller, a solid checking center with the Pittsburgh Penguins, would only cost $1.225 million, thus it might be obvious to sign him.
Although I believe it will be extremely difficult for the Leafs to be players for the Hanifins and Guentzels at this deadline, a couple things were cemented by their recent 13-3-0 run that came before the Boston loss.
They will, for starters, qualify for the playoffs. Additionally, they might advance in the Atlantic Division.
In addition, there aren’t many teams in the NHL at the moment that should terrify you in general.
The Leafs are tied for the eighth-best record in the league after having a lackluster first half of the season. They have an excellent power play and can score just as well as anyone. They are currently seventh in goals against (2.76) and have led the NHL in goals per game (3.88) over their previous 17 games played.
Most notably, they have greatly improved their defense, giving up the fourth fewest shots per game throughout that time.
The Leafs might have something here if they add a smart player or two and receive strong goaltending from one of their three possibilities in the closing minutes.
They also have enough cap space, as previously mentioned, to take a significant action. While maybe not as much as the previous season’s haul, it is still sufficient to address their two main deficiencies.
Here, the right move should be to become strategically assertive.
The most difficult aspect of that for Toronto, though, is that deadline day is expected to be historically lackluster. And the vendors have been holding firm for the appropriate ransom up until this point. The Leafs shouldn’t be hindered by the salary cap, but the high asking prices and their dearth of available players may work against them.
In this setting, meeting their requirements is going to truly call for some ingenuity.
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