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The Toronto Maple Leafs face another important divisional matchup against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday. The clubs are tied in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race with 87 points, one point behind second-place Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division. Each head-to-head contest could be the difference between having home-ice advantage in the first round and starting the post-season on the road.
Toronto will have to play a more responsible two-way game as they did in their win over Florida on Sunday to best the red-hot Bruins, who are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and have captain Patrice Bergeron back. Rookie Jeremy Swayman (19-8-3, 2.09 GAA, .925 save percentage), who is 11-1-1 in his last 13 starts is the likely starter, with Petr Mrazek (12-6-0, 3.31 GAA, .890) making his second straight for Toronto.
New Leaf Nick Abruzzese joined the club in Boston and took line rushes with Colin Blackwell and Jason Spezza, but with the expectation of a typical Bruins crash-and-bang, Toronto recalled Kyle Clifford on Monday and the veteran forward will take the spot of Wayne Simmonds in the lineup.
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The news from the GM Meetings in West Palm Beach, FL has to be considered good news for the Maple Leafs for next season and the near future. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the salary cap will go up $1 million to $82.5 million next season. Coupled with the expiration of Phil Kessel’s $1.2 million retained salary from the 2015 trade, that gives the Leafs just over $8 million in cap space for 2022-23.
The Leafs have six unrestricted free agents (Ilya Mikheyev, Spezza, Blackwell, Mark Giordano, Ilya Lyubushkin, and Jack Campbell) this summer, so if their goal is to re-sign some of them, they will likely have to move others off the existing roster to do so.
Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports is reporting that the salary cap is likely to jump significantly after the 2024-25 season once the player’s debt to the owners has been repaid. This could be a complication for the Leafs, as Auston Matthews’ five-year deal expires after the 2023-24 campaign.
Toronto could extend Matthews after next season and make him the highest-paid player in the NHL, but that would likely mean trading someone with a significant salary before that deal kicks in.
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