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Leafs hammer Habs, extend streak to 12; can van Riemsdyk's deal be fit in?

March 18, 2018, 1:14 AM ET [275 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs put forth another impressive performance on home ice, extending their club record home winning streak to 12 games with a 4-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at Air Canada Centre on Saturday.

William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Nazem Kadri and Andreas Johnsson scored for Toronto, and backup Curtis McElhinney made 33 saves for his third shutout of the season.



The Leafs were able to create offense at even strength after a sluggish start and on the man advantage (with both power play units registering goals). After Nylander’s power play goal gave Toronto the lead late in the first, the Leafs took over the game in the middle frame, outshooting the struggling Habs 26-9 and opening up a three goal lead on goals from Kapanen and Kadri.

Kapanen’s speed on the fourth line provided a matchup problem for Montreal, as he scored his sixth goal early in the middle frame on a breakaway pass from rookie Travis Dermott and scored a second goal minutes later, which was negated for goaltender interference.

After playing just over seven minutes in the NHL debut on Wednesday, Johnsson was promoted to a scoring line with Nylander and Zach Hyman and showed off the skill set that earned him a promotion earlier this week. The Toronto Marlies leading goal scorer led the Leafs with seven shots on goal and scored his first NHL goal late in the third period.



“(Johnsson) had so many chances. That line was really good, (Zach) Hyman was real dominant.” said an impressed Leafs head coach Mike Babcock after the game. “Good for him, he was on the puck, he’s smart with it. He’s obviously not scared, he’s quick, his first couple steps are quick.”

After the game, Babcock provided more information on the four players out due to injury. Frederik Andersen and Auston Matthews are expected to play “right away”, which likely means that both will be in the lineup when the Leafs play in Tampa Bay on Tuesday.

Nikita Zaitsev skated for the second day in a row on Saturday and is feeling better, but there was no indication of when the blueliner would return.

Leo Komarov’s lower body injury is not long term. Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston indicated on HNIC’s Saturday Headlines that the veteran winger could be out up to two weeks, but that time frame is well in advance of the playoffs and has to be considered good news after how severe the injury appeared in Buffalo on Thursday.

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With James van Riemsdyk scoring five goals in the last three games to set a career-high 31 goals, the question of whether the Leafs have the ability to re-sign the big winger before he becomes an unrestricted free agent this July.

Toronto currently has 29 players signed for next season and will have nearly $25 Million in cap space if the cap remained at the current $75 Million level. That cap space comes from the expiring contracts of the big three (van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov), Dominic Moore, Roman Polak, Tomas Plekanec and Joffrey Lupul, but also over $2 Million freed up from the buyouts of Jared Cowen and Tim Gleason elapsing.

The league’s cap number could go up anywhere from $5-7 Million this summer depending on what the NHL and NHLPA negotiate. The problem for the Leafs is not room for next season, it is allocating funds after the 2019-2020 season, when William Nylander, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner will all be on new deals.

Both Nylander and Marner are likely to be in the $6-7 Million range on long term deals and Matthews will undoubtedly be close to Connor McDavid’s $12.5 Million AAV on a max deal.

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun says the deals of Blue Jackets winger Cam Atkinson (seven years at $5.875 Million and T.J. Oshie (eight years at $5.75 Million) are logical comparables, but the soon-to-be 29 year old winger’s salary could go up into the $6.5 Million range if he takes less term as Kevin Shattenkirk did with the New York Rangers (four years at $6.65 Million AAV).

One scenario that could work for the Leafs if they wish to keep van Riemsdyk is to sign him to the long-term deal, keep him for his two prime years (seasons when he is 29 and 30 years old) and then trade him after two seasons to give them the cap space they need to make room for the young core’s new deals.

The only impediment to that would be the demand for a no-movement clause on a new deal. A limited no-trade would still give the Leafs enough flexibility to move the contract when the time came.

Another possible scenario that played out many times last summer is teams offering draft picks or prospects to Vegas to take on a contract. The Islanders gave the Golden Knights their 2017 first round pick to take Mikhail Grabovski’s contract off their hands. The cost for Florida to get rid of the four remaining years of Reilly Smith’s five-year, $25 Million contract was to allow Vegas to claim Jonathan Marchessault in the expansion draft.

The much-speculated Seattle expansion franchise is likely to come into the league in 2020 and it is very possible that the Leafs could make it worth their while to take a contract of their choosing off their hands.

If Toronto does allow van Riemsdyk to leave, it again puts in question why the Leafs management team did not trade a valuable commodity before the deadline and get something in return. It also increases the likelihood of the club adding veteran complementary players willing to take a one-or-two year deal (Joe Thornton or Ilya Kovalchuk) to make up for the loss the big winger’s offense.

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