Pay now ask later How the John Tavares contract impacts Mapl

Posted by seestyle on August 4th, 2022

It was just three years ago that the Maple Leafs' roster was a depre sing sight to behold. They were not only the worst team in the league, they were putting a dreadful product on the ice that lacked any sort of appeal and impact Budda Baker Jersey talent.

No player on the team had more than 45 points. P.A. Parenteau (now retired) and Leo Komarov (now overpaid by theIslanders) were two of their top three leading scorers. Peter Holland, Brad Boyes and Dion Phaneuf were all among their top 10. William Nylander appeared in just 20 games that season. Mitch Marner had yet to make his NHL debut. They had not yet won draft lottery and did not even have Auston Matthews in the organization yet.

The young prospects and potential top draft pick offered hope, but it still seemed like it was lightyearsfrom becoming a reality.

Thanks to some smart drafting,patience, a little bit of luck (the draft lottery is far from a guarantee)and being the one team in the NHL that had the power to attract the rare superstar free agent, it has not taken the Maple Leafs long to once again emerge as, what should be, one of the superpowers in the league.

MORE: In pursuit of Cup, John Tavares puts Leafs in position to go for it

Matthews, Nylanderand Marner have all lived up to the hype and expectations from when they were drafted, and on Sunday, the first day of the 2018 free agent signing period, . Given that the former Islanders captainreportedly turned down (significantly) more money from theSharks, it seems pretty clear Toronto wasthe only team in the league that had the ability to lure him away from Brooklyn.

All of that has given the Maple Leafs an embarra sment of riches at the forward position.

How good is their current core? With Tavares now locked in, the Leafs' roster boasts five of the top 65 players in points per game (minimum 120 games) over the past two seasons in Tavares, Matthews, Nylander, Marner and Nazem Kadri. The Stanley Cup champion Capitals ( Nick Saban Jersey Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsovand T.J. Oshie) andJets (Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laineand Nikolaj Ehlers) each have four. No other team has more than three.

You win with superstars and impact players, and it is arguable that right now no team in the league Johnny Townsend Jersey has more of them than the Maple Leafs. What makes them especially scary is that Tavares and Kadri are the old players out of the bunch, both turning 28 this season. Matthews, Nylander and Marner are all 22 or younger, meaning they are now just entering their prime years. For as good as the kidshave already proven to be, they probably still have their best, most productive hockey ahead of them.

The potential combinations that coach Mike Babcock has at his disposal are as imposing as any other team in the league.

There is no reason to believe that the Matthews-Nylander duo will not be left in place at the top of the lineup, especially given the way they have just steamrolled over teams during their first two full seasons in the league. In more than 1,500 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey since the start of the 2016-17 season, the Maple Leafs have controlled 53 percent of the total shot attempts and outscored teams by a 76-47 margin with bothMatthews and Nylanderon the ice.

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Babcock said on Sunday that he envisions a Tavares-Marner pairing on the second line, while Kadri who has developed into a fierce shutdown center with plenty of offensive punch in his own right gets to anchor the third line. When you add in the likes of Zach Hyman, Conor Brown, Kasperi KapanenandPatrick Marleau (still a 25-goal scorer at this point in his career), it is an astonishing amount of offensive talent.

It also creates questions beyond which All-Star gets to play alongside which All-Star.

The big ones that are going to get asked are: 1.) How can they po sibly keep all of these high-end players together under the salary cap?And 2.) Which one can they trade to fill their weakne ses on the defense?

The answers: 1.) All of them, and 2.) None of them.

The most irrational Denzel Johnson Jersey fear in the NHL when it comes to building a team in the salary-cap era is worrying about paying too much money to a teams best players, or that it is impo sible to keep them all in place. This usually applies to the people covering and following the sport, more so than the people actually building the teams, but it is stilla talking point around any team that pays a small number of players big money.

WINNERS & LOSERS:

If anything, the teams that win the Stanley Cup in the salary-cap era have illustrated just how imperative it is to not only keep those Stedman Bailey Jersey players, but paying almost whatever it takes to keep them.

The salary cap outlook for the Maple Leafs this season is an encouraging one because they still have Matthews and Marner on their entry-level deals. Nylander is a restricted free agent and will get a significant raise, but even with Tavares contract in place, they have more than enough salary cap space to comfortably get him in.

The concern is going to come next season and beyond, when they also have topay Matthews and Nylander.

A conservative estimate for Matthews, Nylander and Marner is that it is probably going to cost at least -25 million in salary cap space per year to keep them (a suming at least million each for Nylander and Marner; perhaps as much as million for Matthews). Combined with Tavares, that would be at least -35 million going to just four players.

Seems like a lot, right? Seems impo sible to build a contending team around them, right?

Not exactly.

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Consider that the2017-18 Capitals had more than million going to Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby on a significantly lower cap.

Or that the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Penguins had .2 million going to Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Shaun Neal-Williams Jersey Malkin, Kris Letang and Phil Ke sel on even lower salary caps than that one.

Or that the 2014-15Blackhawks had more than million going to Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Ho sa and Duncan Keith on an even lower salary cap than all of the previous three.

You get the idea.

The other thing those teams had in common is that they didnt trade from their core to fix other areas. There is a reason high-end talent rarely changes teams in the NHL (unle s, of course, you are talking about a team being run by Peter Chiarelli). It is nearly impo sible to find and acquire said talent,and when teams get it they hold on to it for as long as they po sibly can. It is also worth keeping in mind that after the 2019-10 season, the Maple Leafs will have close to million coming off the books when the contracts for Marleau and Matt Martin run out, while there is alw