The Toronto Maple Leafs' front office overhaul is going to cause fans headaches as it turns out they're cap situation is caused by a lack of serious oversight.
This summer, the Maple Leafs did a bunch of different moves at both the front office and roster level, including bringing in a few new faces to replace long-time staff members like Hayley Wickenheiser and Darryl Metcalf.
But the one big departure that left fans stunned was that of Brandon Pridham, who ended up leaving after 12 years with the club and being the architect of the team's Core Four at least when it comes to their salary cap.
He made the numbers work and while the Maple Leafs never had a swell of cap space - they consistently found ways to add.
Maple Leafs' cap issues this year is because of their front office overhaul
Well, with him gone this year it's going to be a different person taking the reins, and from the sounds of it - it's causing a lot of issues. Reason being? They're literally training Pridham's replacement on the fly.
James Mirtle reported that the Maple Leafs are trying to get current Chief of Staff Freddie Hamilton to be their capologist of sorts, with him trying to run the numbers given his financial background. Problem is though...he's never done anything close to this type of work:
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Well that could explain a whole heck of a lot when it comes to their current cap crunch. If Hamilton doesn't know the exact ins and outs of the CBA and how the NHL contract structure and cap system works then he might make mistakes that Pridham wouldn't have.
How Hamilton's lack of experience has already cost the Maple Leafs
Case in point, Toronto's tagging issues. We never heard much about tagging rules until the Kirill Marchenko trade, which caused the Leafs a headache and needing to send out more pieces than they expected.
Had Pridham been in charge, it's unlikely that the team would have ran into that situation, and he would have likely found an alternative or had a better plan in mind for John Chayka as opposed to figuring it out on the fly.
It's all well and good that the Maple Leafs want to expand some of the roles for their staff, including Hamilton - who was hired in a brand new Chief of Staff position. But it's something that needed more foresight especially if Chayka was expecting to make big moves.
Having Pridham around instead would have made things easier, and perhaps the team wouldn't be in the situation they are in. But hindsight is 20/20, so we just have to hope that Hamilton is a very quick learner.
Do you think Toronto's front office changes are causing bigger problems for the Maple Leafs?
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