The Toronto Maple Leafs have spent the summer building something fans have been asking for: actual depth. New GM John Chayka has given the roster more forwards who can play, more legitimate competition for jobs, and fewer places where someone can just coast into a spot because there’s nobody pushing from behind.
That should be a win. Instead, it has created a different kind of headache.
Toronto may have too many useful players for its own cap situation.
Steven Lorentz, Max Domi and Dakota Joshua are right in the middle of that squeeze. The question isn’t just whether all three are good enough to make the team.
It’s whether the Maple Leafs can afford to keep all three on the roster under the salary cap. Those are not the same thing, and in this case the second one matters more.
The Leafs are sitting about $2.75 million over the cap, so something has to move. There are a few possible outs.
Domi could land on LTIR and create temporary breathing room, if his health situation makes that possible. Trading Joshua would wipe out his full contract.
Toronto could also try to make do with a 20-man roster, though that’s a pretty shaky way to live across an 82-game season.
Sending players to the Marlies doesn’t exactly clean it up either. The Leafs don’t have a pile of waiver-exempt options sitting around to make the numbers work. Easton Cowan and Gavin McKenna are the obvious exceptions, but McKenna is not the kind of player you bring into the organization and then immediately start hunting for ways to bury in the minors just to satisfy the cap.
That’s the real wrinkle here: this may not come down to who has the best camp. It may come down to who fits.
That’s one of the more interesting side effects of what Chayka has done this summer. He’s given the team the kind of internal battle fans wanted. The problem is that competition still has a price tag.
If Domi, Lorentz and Joshua all show well in camp, Hiller can’t just shrug and keep everybody. Someone has to go somewhere.
That might not mean someone played poorly. It might mean a contract doesn’t line up.
It might mean a trade opens up. It might mean the Leafs have to make a hard call before the season even begins.
Depth is a good thing until it becomes a math problem. For Toronto, that’s where things stand now. The Maple Leafs have more options than they used to - and a cap sheet that may force them to choose among them.
In Other News...
Maple Leafs May Have Just Avoided A Brutal Blue Line Debate
The Maple Leafs may have sidestepped a conversation that could have gotten uncomfortable in a hurry on the blue line. Toronto has spent plenty of time trying to balance its defense, and the idea of moving Morgan Rielly would have sent a ripple through a group that still leans heavily on him in important situations.
What made the possibility worth watching was Anaheims cap picture, which changed after the Leo Carlsson offer sheet and briefly opened the door to a scenario Toronto fans probably would have had a hard time digesting. A deal never materialized, but the mere fact it could have been on the table shows how quickly one move elsewhere in the league can tug at the edges of a roster debate in Toronto. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Just Added A Wave Of Prospects Worth Watching
The Maple Leafs spent the 2023 cycle adding a fresh layer of young depth to an organization that has been trying to keep its pipeline moving while the big club stays in win-now mode. Fifteen new players under 25 entered the system through the draft and other acquisitions, including one brought in via trade and several signed as free agents, giving the team a mix of established prospects, players with NHL or AHL seasoning, and others still set to develop in college or junior hockey.
It is the kind of group that can be easy to overlook in the short term but matters a lot when a front office is trying to keep options open. Some of these newcomers are already pushing toward pro roles, while others are still a long way from Toronto, but together they give the Leafs a broader range of possible contributors as the organization keeps sorting out who can help next and who might become more than just a name on a prospect list. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Saw This Roster Problem Coming Long Before This Summer
Two years ago, the Maple Leafs were already kicking tires on help for the same sort of roster gaps that have lingered into this summer. According to Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette, Toronto had interest in Canadiens players Arber Xhekaj and Sean Monahan, a sign the club recognized it needed a different blend of size, edge and stability long before the current front office reshaped the roster.
Monahan eventually landed with the Columbus Blue Jackets after being traded in February 2024, while Toronto went in another direction and added other pieces to cover similar needs after a management change. The bigger takeaway is how early the Leafs identified the problem, even if the solutions they ultimately chose came from elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]