The Toronto Maple Leafs have been the punching bag for many fans and writers. This is mainly because of the fact that this team makes no sense at all. But that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t win. It is impossible for the Maple Leafs to win with the current team that they have. There’s one major reason for this and the man responsible is general manager Kyle Dubas.
Cap Crippled
This is no surprise, the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t win because they are screwed when it comes to the salary cap. I’ve brought this up before and it’s part of why I don’t understand this team at all. Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander cost the Toronto Maple Leafs a combined $40,489,366 in salary cap space every year. That’s 49.7% of the NHL salary cap. In no world, should 4 players (16% of the roster) cost almost half of the salary cap. Let’s compare the Toronto Maple Leafs to the team they haven’t been able to beat in the past couple of years, the Boston Bruins. David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy are making a combined $40,266,666. One team has 4 players making 49.7% of the salary cap and another team with 7 players making up 49.4% of the salary cap. You tell me which team is better and which team will make it further into the playoffs. There’s nothing that can be done to manipulate the salary cap in the NHL, the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t win because they have 4 players making too much money. They’re depth isn’t good enough to compete with teams like the Boston Bruins. One of those contracts needs to go, I just don’t think they can find someone dumb enough to take those contracts.
I know that this is comparing different sports but the New England Patriots never pay anyone market value and they’ve been dominate over the past 20 years. Depth is extremely important in hockey. It doesn’t matter if you have the best 1st line in the league, if your 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines stink then you can’t win a championship.
