Toronto Maple Leafs May Be Better Off Letting Star Walk After Salary Cap Breakdown
With news the salary cap is going to rise, it sounds like Toronto is in a good spot to keep their Mitch Marner, but a deeper dive may say otherwise.
The NHL salary cap is expected to hit some monster figures in the next few years, as the League recently announced that the 2027-28 cap number is going to exceed $113M; a staggering amount that will make some fans salivate at the potential and others to wonder how their teams are going to be able to compete.
As one of the NHL's wealthiest and prominent franchises, the Maple Leafs are in a good spot to spend, and with an increased cap, they could re-sign Mitch Marner and not have a terrible cap situation in the future. But should they?
Maple Leafs Need To Walk Away From Mitch Marner To Strengthen Team
In a new article written for The Athletic, James Mirtle broke down the pros and cons of the Maple Leafs in regards to a rising salary cap.
But amidst all the positives that the Maple Leafs can use not only next season but thereafter there lies one big glaring negative: Mitch Marner's potential extension.
Mirtle broke down why Marner's deal could give the Maple Leafs trouble if they decide to go all-in and re-sign him:
Because if you go much higher than that, the $31 million in cap space the Leafs have for next season disappears very quickly. To the point that they won't be able to take advantage of the cap jump in free agency at all this summer.
Which isn't ideal, given they continue to have needs at center and on defense."
If Toronto were to re-sign Marner at $13.5M (a tough ask given that it would exceed the supposed internal cap on Auston Matthews) it would only give them roughly $8M to work with in order to fill in a ton of holes.
Marner has been lights out again this season, and has often been the team's biggest bright spot; making walking away even tougher.
He has 15 goals and 53 assists in 51 games for the Leafs and is one of only four players to play in every game this season for the team.
However, they still need to re-sign John Tavares and Matthew Knies, they'll still have a gaping hole down the middle, and their defense while good; desperately needs an injection of offense.
Even with Tavares and Knies signed, it gives them only $5M to work with to fill a third line center role, and most of their bottom line (although they may re-sign Steven Lorentz to fill one of those gaps as well).
The team needs to cut Ryan Reaves, they need to hope Calle Jarnkrok can come back and be a solid contributor but he costs $2.1M which could be spent elsewhere.
Not to mention, what if they go out and make a trade for a pending free agent and they end up getting into a deep playoff push? There's money needed there especially if the player has years left to produce.
There's going to be tons of other teams throwing Brinks Trucks worth of money at Marner come July 1.
While he's been undoubtedly a huge reason for Toronto's regular season success, if the team can't get it done with him, they should look to add enough pieces to do it without him.
