Leafs set to have over $40 million in cap space next summer
Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving is facing a team executive’s dream scenario in the future: a nearly blank canvas to do his magic.
The Maple Leafs might be in a salary cap crunch this year, but Treliving will have plenty of freedom next summer. CapFriendly’s current projection has the Leafs spending just $40.844 million on salary for the 2024-25 season as of players currently signed to contract.
It’s clear that Treliving aimed at having cap flexibility in the future, with Tyler Bertuzzi, John Klingberg, and Max Domi all signing one-year deals in Toronto this past summer.
The NHL salary cap is set for $83.5 million for the 2023-24 season and is expected to rise next year by $1 million or more as it does in most years, outside of years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And though Toronto will most likely have a few in-season signings, trades, and contract extensions that will eat into their future cap space, Treliving has all the freedom in the world to do what he likes with Toronto’s roster.
Of course, that’s without the possibility of the team signing star forwards William Nylander and Auston Matthews to new contracts as they’re both set to expire after this season, but as we’ve seen in the NHL, it’s much easier to simply assume a player will actually sign before the pen has been put to paper.
In terms of restricted free agents, Toronto has just two major ones set for 2024-25 to figure out: defenceman Timothy Liljegren and forward Nick Robertson, who’s yet to play more than 15 games for the team at the NHL level.
Toronto arguably has the two most enticing players of the pending 2024 free agent class on their own roster in Nylander and Matthews, but there are plenty of other intriguing candidates as well.
Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos, New Jersey’s Tyler Toffoli, Florida’s Sam Reinhart, and Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele are four of the biggest names set to hit unrestricted free agency next summer.
Sure, it’s more than 10 months out before Toronto could see their massive cap vacancy, but it’s never too early in the modern NHL to start thinking about what the team could look like a year from now.