Toronto Maple Leafs clear up some cap space by sending forward to LTIR

With Toronto needing to clear up some room after announcing the signings of Max Pacioretty and Steven Lorentz to full-time contracts, they have a few options at their disposal in order to ease the cap crunch. They could look for a trade, or they could utilize the LTIR as a stop-gap while they figure out the logistics.

It's the latter option the Maple Leafs are more inclined to pick, as they are presumed to place oft-injured forward Calle Jarnkrok on the LTIR to start the season, as noted by Maple Leafs analyst and insider Kyle Cushman on X:

Jarnkrok has been absent from Maple Leafs practices recently, and even when he returned was only sporadically before leaving the ice. Whatever lingering issues he's having is a concern to the Leafs as they're currently paying him $2.1M in order to consistently be hurt. We don't know the extent of the injury, however with his repeated absence it seems worse than just a bit of discomfort. Jarnkrok will unfortunately miss the first 10 games of the season, but it'll give him more than enough time to recover; or give Toronto enough time to figure out a plan for his future.

Coming off a down year with the Maple Leafs last season, Jarnkrok is only two years removed from a 20-goal season, and during his time in Nashville, Seattle and Calgary scored 106 goals and 135 assists as a defensive forward; not too shabby.

He isn't worth the $2.1M the Maple Leafs are paying him, especially since he is injured so often and it's not the first time that Jarnkrok has been placed on LTIR. When you're paying a player who is always hurt it's a bit of a question mark towards management, and the fact that Jarnkrok has skated in over 65 games only once since 2019-2020 and has missed 186 games in the last five seasons. Those aren't numbers you want at $1M let alone double that, and it would be in Toronto's best interest to gauge if any teams would want Jarnkrok's services.

It will be a tough start to the season for Calle Jarnkrok, and the injured forward will have a lot to work back to, espeically with newcomers Max Pacioretty and Steven Lorentz in the mix. If he's unable to come back with a hot start, it may be time for Jarnkrok to pack his gear.