The Maple Leafs have spent their way into a tricky spot, and the bill is already coming due. Toronto is over the allowable cap room for next season, which means the front office still has work to do before the 2026-27 regular season begins.
That’s the cost of an offseason that has been all-in from the jump. To create room for additions such as Nick Paul, Colton Sissons and Jack Roslovic, the Maple Leafs moved on from Joseph Woll, Simon Benoit, Nick Robertson and Dennis Hildeby. The roster has changed fast, but the math has changed faster.
Toronto has already attacked a few needs. The blue line got a boost with Darren Raddysh, acquired in a sign and trade with Tampa Bay, and the team also made a major push in free agency. It didn’t land a top-six forward, but it did reshape the bottom six and bring Sergei Bobrovsky into the mix.
The problem is that all of that came at a steep price. Toronto is carrying over $62-million AAV per season, and the club’s heavy use of two-year deals shows exactly where its priorities are. The Leafs are trying to maximize Auston Matthews’ time in Toronto, but that urgency has left them with a cap deficit and a roster that still isn’t finished.
There’s also a clear imbalance in how the money is being spent. A lot of it is tied up in bottom-six contracts, and while the back half of the lineup looks completely transformed, the team still has holes. Toronto still needs a proven playmaker in the top six and may also need to find a replacement for Morgan Rielly.
There are a few ways to create relief. Dakota Joshua could be moved as a cap dump, and the Max Domi injury opens up $7-million in cap space if Domi doesn’t play this year. That helps, but it doesn’t solve everything, and it still depends on a trade.
If Toronto wants the cleanest path to cap compliance, Rielly is the obvious name to watch. He’s not a bad player, but the offensive decline and defensive issues make him the easiest big-ticket candidate to move. At $7.5-million per year, the contract is tough to defend given the results.
Rielly would fit better as a second or third offensive option, but that’s a hard sell when other players are making far less. And with so much turnover around him, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the longest-tenured Leaf become the odd man out. As the source notes, that kind of status has never guaranteed anyone a long stay.
Toronto has already been taking calls on Rielly. The team had a real chance to move him to San Jose, but instead passed on that and traded for Darnell Nurse. That tells you the Leafs want a deal, even if they haven’t found the right partner yet.
For now, Rielly stands as Toronto’s most obvious trade candidate. The bigger question is whether the Leafs can actually get something done before the season starts.
In Other News...
Maple Leafs May Finally Have The Piece For A Real Top Six Trade
The Maple Leafs are still shopping for a top-six forward, and the search has only gotten trickier after they moved most of the pieces that would normally bring back real value. One asset they do have is a 2027 first-round pick acquired in the Nic Roy deal, and that kind of draft capital is the sort of thing that can at least get a serious conversation started if Toronto decides to push for help up front.
Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is in a position where it may have to weigh what its future roster looks like against the value of keeping veterans in place. Bryan Rust has come up as a name worth watching in that discussion, especially with his contract running through 2028 and no trade protection attached, but the cost to pry him loose would not be small. If the Leafs are going to make a real swing, they may need to decide whether to part with more than just a pick to get the kind of forward they have been missing. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs May Finally Have A Shot At The Blue Line Fix
Alexander Nikishins situation in Carolina has quickly become one to watch for teams looking to reshape their blue line, and Toronto has naturally surfaced as a club with the kind of need that makes sense in that conversation. The young defenseman and Stanley Cup winner is reportedly seeking a significant contract extension, which has the Hurricanes at least considering trade calls, and that alone is enough to put the Maple Leafs on the radar as a possible partner.
For Toronto, the appeal is obvious: a chance to add a young, high-end defenseman without waiting for the market to dry up elsewhere. Nothing is official, and the talks remain firmly in the realm of possibility, but the fit is the kind that tends to linger around this time of year, especially for a team still searching for a cleaner answer on the back end. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Fans Wont Love Why Werenski Is Back In Trade Talk
Matthew Knies has become one of the more interesting names in the Maple Leafs orbit because his combination of age, role and contract control gives Toronto something every team wants and few are eager to move. Even with reports that the Leafs have at least listened on him, the asks they have been weighing have been substantial enough to show just how much value he carries, especially for a club that is always trying to balance present urgency with future flexibility.
That is why the speculative trade chatter keeps circling back to big names, from Dylan Larkin to Zach Werenski to Connor Hellebuyck, even if none of those possibilities is close to real. The Werenski idea, in particular, comes with its own obvious hurdle because Toronto would need more than just a willing trade partner, and the price would not be light. For now, Knies remains in Toronto, but the fact that he is still being discussed at all says plenty about how aggressively the Leafs are at least exploring their options. [Read more 🡒]