Monday Mailbag: Good To Be Back

As it turns out, I haven’t died, lost the will to write, or been hired by an NHL team. Instead, I did a lot more focusing on the task at hand with the Five Hole For Food road crew this year, and didn’t write sleep-deprived filler articles throughout July. But the tour is done; we raised a staggering amount of food once again this year, and have gone our separate ways. 

Which means I’m back! I fly back to Toronto tomorrow evening, and I’m here to irritate you all with my thoughts and takes once again. To start off, here’s a few questions that you had for me this week.

For those who aren’t totally in the loop, the draft lottery is seeing some revision made to it. Rather than just the top spot being put up for grabs for non-playoff teams, the entire top three picks are now attached to the results of lottery balls. In theory, the worst team in NHL history could draft fourth overall moving forward.

With that said, a lack of guarantee doesn’t change the fact that you will have the highest chance of getting that first pick, and that the higher you are in the draft, the better chance you have at getting a great prospect. It’s not likely that they’ll be the worst team next year, but the end game if you’re taking hasn’t changed.

This is actually harder than I thought it would be. My original response involved resigning Phaneuf for twice the cap hit, because that would violate the CBA and immediately be void. It’s a cheap answer, but I’m all for exploiting the rules.

Unfortunately, league max is 14.26 million this year, and as such, Phaneuf would actually get his $14 million. With that said, there are still ways around this.

You buy out Tyler Bozak. He’ll have the lowest buyout cap hit of the bunch; approximately 1.4 million over six years. This saves the Leafs 2.8 million dolllars, bringing them to a shade under 10 million in available cap space.

You sign Jonathan Bernier to a contract. Not long term, maybe a year or two at $4-5 million,  leaving you with $6 million remaining.

You take Joffrey Lupul and some prospects and you send him to Carolina in a trade for Eric Staal, who has one year left at $8.25 million. This leaves the Leafs with $3 million to left on the cap.

You wait until the start of the season to double Dion’s cap hit to $14 million. You’re now $4 million over the cap. Which means Nathan Horton’s LTIR will bring you $1.25 million under. Waiiiiit…

I jump off a building and someone else deal with this question.

The entire class of 20+ year old rookies. Gautheir, Valiev, Verhaghe, and the like. It sounds crazy, but because of the Leafs’ new system of using the Solar Bears as a vehicle for player dvelopment, spots won’t just be handed to them. Management might find it advantageous for them to dominate the ECHL for a few months to learn the ropes of professional life before heading into Toronto. 

Goaltending will create interesting battles. Antoine Bibeau, Christopher Gibson, and Garret Sparks all had solid years last season and at the moment, there’s no stand out candidate for the starter, backup, or ECHL starter roles. Just like last year, it’ll be ultra competitive.

I think this is still up for grabs, mostly because we haven’t seen what Kasperi Kapanen is capable of within this organization yet. The praise for him is sky-high, but at the same time, not as high as it was a year ago. I’m in between him and Connor Brown at the moment as the distinct #3 – Brown has exceeded all expectations at both the junior nad professional levels and catapulted himself up the depth chart, so it’s tough to rule him out at the moment.

From my own perspective? I’m stilll pretty skeptical about him, and would probably trade him for just about anything that doesn’t require eating salary, be it via retention or via taking on a bad deal. I have huge concerns about his productivity without Phil Kessel, and if he falls back down to earth, it’ll be impossible to move him for years.

From the team’s perspective? To maximize value, it doesn’t make sense to show desperation. Toronto’s asking price is believed to be in and around the area of a second round pick, and if they can get close to that regard, I’m sure they’ll pull the trigger. With that said, I could see that price lowering in the coming weeks.