The Maple Leafs can't just cut one player and be good for opening night, as it'll take a lot of fluidity and creativity if the team wants to be cap compliant.
When it comes to the regular season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, there's a lot of excitement given the new additions to the lineup, the arrival of Gavin McKenna, and a brand new coaching staff that expects to bring a lot more creativity and entertainment for their loyal and passionate fans.
However, with those new additions comes with one caveat that the Maple Leafs haven't been able to figure out - their cap situation. Currently, the team is $2.75M over the projected cap and are going to need to make more than just a simple waiver move to make sure they are compliant by Sept. 29.
Even burying two veteran contracts still leaves Toronto short of the cap line
Toronto right now has a bit of a question mark about their lineup given they have quite a few new faces who all seem to be cemented into the bottom-six, so there is one avenue they could explore. However, they'd more than likely prefer to keep people within the organization so sending down contract could open up space.
Sending Troy Stecher down would create $1.225 million in cap relief, leaving $125,000 of his $1.35-million hit on Toronto's books. That still would not solve a $2.75-million overage by itself and sending down a Steven Lorentz wouldn't help either as it wouldn't clear enough space and take away a key part of Sergei Bobrovsky's arsenal.
They have to make a move that involves players being shipped out, and it means their roster is going to look even more different than it already does. A player like Philippe Myers is a very likely candidate to be waived and sent down, but again - his cost doesn't outweigh Toronto's debt.
It's not just a matter of who isn't going to make the cut, but who in fact needs to be cut in order for the team to actually have a compliant lineup.
Keeping a full extra roster spot may require Toronto to move real salary unless LTIR changes the math
But for argument's sake, let's say the Maple Leafs can make some room. Stecher and Lorentz could each create up to $1.225 million in relief if assigned to the AHL, but that still leaves Toronto roughly $300,000 short of wiping out the current overage.
With Toronto already a fairly injury-prone team, having more bodies is better than not. Mac Domi's potential LTIR relief is going to be a potential insurance policy for them but if he returns at any point, that goes out the window.
The team would have to get real money out the door which means a trade involving a player like Dakota Joshua ($3.25M) or Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($3.5M). The team wouldn't necessarily like to do that, however they may have no choice and with them legitimately needing cap relief in less than a month - they have to find some plan of action.
It isn't so much that Toronto can get away with burying salary in the minors, and any players they send down or waive are not really going to help them - either be cap compliant or give them enough insurance and John Chayka has to make more than just one cut to prepare the Maple Leafs for 2026-27.
Do you think the Maple Leafs can make enough moves to clear cap space before the regular season?
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