Despite cap crunch, Leafs looking to add players with term over rentals at the trade deadline

Since he took over for Lou Lamoriello as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kyle Dubas has been quite a busy man. Fans might have thought things would slow down a bit once he resolved the William Nylander contract impasse in early December, however, now, he needs to answer a plethora of questions on offer sheets and contract extensions, and let's not rule out trades either... 

Dubas needs to focus on re-signing star players Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, and since money remains an issue in Toronto, it seems like all potential trade plans tie back to the two forwards. Dubas had no choice to face some difficult questions when he sat down with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic on Monday, especially when it comes to the Maple Leafs' plans ahead of the trade deadline, while keeping in mind the priority of re-signing Matthews and Marner. 

"... If we have some certainty or some relative certainty about where the contracts for Auston and Mitch are going to come in, and we have more certainty at that time for where the salary cap will be for next season, we may be able to add players that are more than just rentals, that do have some term, whether it's one, two, or however many years left on their contracts," Dubas told LeBrun. 

"I think all those pieces kind of have to fit together. I don't really look and see many pure rentals that really change the dynamic of our group. So anything that we'd be looking at would be players that probably have some term."

According to the information provided by Cap Friendly, the Maple Leafs currently have $5.8 million in available cap space for the remainder of the season. Next year's limit is expected to increase to approximately $83 million and Toronto is projected to have just over $23 million at its disposal heading into 2019-20.

The fear of having to fight off other teams with offer sheets to Matthews does not seem to keep Dubas up at night at the moment. However, if the Leafs GM chooses to add pieces with terms at the deadline, the puzzle will get even more complicated with too many pieces to put together...