Leafs in more trouble than first expected with salary cap following shocking report!

The Toronto Maple Leafs have over $74.2 million invested in 17 players for 2019-20, which means they have less than $9 million to work with should the salary cap reach the projected $83 million.

We all know it’s going to be a cap crunch to keep most importantly Mitch Marner, but other free agents as well. 

It will be an EVEN BIGGER issue now that it is believed that the projected salary cap won’t be as higher as first anticipated. 

According to Elliotte Friedman, who spoke about the situation on the 31 Thoughts podcast on Sportsnet, the salary cap may not rise as much as previously projected because so many big market teams were eliminated early.

We all know that the cap is tied to the revenue and bigger markets bring in more money. However, the Leafs, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the defending champions Washington Capitals and the Calgary Flames were all eliminated in the first round when expected to go much further in the postseason. 

The Leafs won’t be the only team affected by the potential change, however, there are the first club we think about seeing that the mathematical equations just keep getting more complicated. 

I failed math. So, I won’t be any help.

Let’s hope GM Kyle Dubas has gotten the heads up and will manage to get his budget under control for another (and longer) playoff run next spring.