Quote (Secksii @ Jul 24 2019 06:46pm)
I'll post most of the athletics article here
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that it really matters when you go into LTIR and how much space you have under the cap at that point. Using LTIR does allow teams to exceed the cap, but only to the extent they need to in order to compensate for that contract.
The end result of that formula is the closer you are to the cap when you go into LTIR, the better.
The Leafs were not actually that close to the cap prior to acquiring Clarkson from Vegas. The biggest reason is they are holding cap space for Mitch Marner for whenever that stalemate finally gets resolved.
Leaving that big open space, however, made using LTIR to its full potential more difficult.
What Pridham needed to find was a way to temporarily add cap space that wasn’t ultimately going to cost them against the cap.
CapFriendly illustrates this pretty well with the current Leafs roster they have up. Without Clarkson’s $5.25 million cap hit, that group of 21 players listed would be $76.98 million – or roughly $4.5 million under the cap – entering the year.
If the Leafs put Nathan Horton’s $5.3 million contract on LTIR under those circumstances, that would free up only another $800,000. (They could theoretically recall a few more players and expand that figure by a million or two, but not use LTIR to its full potential.)
That LTIR-created space would not be enough to accommodate Marner’s deal, which could be north of $11 million a season.
And the Leafs would be leaving money on the table because of where they were in relation to the cap when Horton was placed on LTIR.
Now, the Leafs do have other options. Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott are currently injured and could easily begin the year on LTIR. That would free up additional room to accommodate Marner’s contract. They weren’t in a completely desperate situation without having Clarkson on the roster.
But the addition of another big cap hit that can be placed on LTIR whenever they want gives them more options, increasing Pridham’s flexibility in terms of how (and when) he shifts these pieces around.
There is zero danger at this point they will leave cap space on the table. And they can handle a very big offer sheet (or contract decision) on Marner at any point between now and Dec. 1.
So that’s why they wanted the contract.
The other interesting ramification of acquiring Clarkson is the Leafs can finally make official some of the free-agent signings they agreed to in early July. Players like Nick Shore and Kenny Agostino aren’t yet technically Toronto property until their contracts are registered with the league, something that’s likely to go through in the coming days after a wait of several weeks.
Even Jason Spezza, whose signing was announced, hasn’t been listed on the roster on the team website as his deal wasn’t yet official.
The reason some of those contracts didn’t get “done done” was to give the Leafs flexibility. Before they acquired Clarkson, they had a little under $14 million in summer cap room, which would be enough to accommodate Marner’s deal in even the most outlandish offer-sheet scenario.
If all of their free agents were locked in prior to acquiring Clarkson, however, the Leafs would have likely had to make a move to fit a very big Marner deal.
If that involved an offer sheet dropping unexpectedly, it could mean the Leafs no longer controlled the timing of the decision on the when part of LTIR, which as we stated above, can be very important.
Now that they have Clarkson, the Leafs have enough LTIR-eligible contracts that they control their destiny to a far greater extent. They can enter LTIR tomorrow, or at a later point in the offseason, or early in the year, depending on what happens with Marner.
Tl:Dr version, basically the closer cap your team is to the cap, the more benefit of cap relief. Clarkson put them 2mil over, and they know he's pretty much donezos and won't be in NHL and don't have to worry of him coming back later, and gives them more flexibility
I get it now , basically they needed to be at or over the cap to utilize the potential LTIR relief now.
This post was edited by remco6 on Jul 24 2019 07:46pm