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Leafs Notes: Buyouts, Offer Sheets, Pre-Season Schedule

June 30, 2022, 5:45 PM ET [64 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The National Hockey League’s buyout window opens on Friday, less than a week prior to the 2022 Draft in Montreal and less than two weeks before the beginning of unrestricted free agency, and it is up in the air whether the Toronto Maple Leafs will use this mechanism to clear cap space or not.

Leafs GM Kyle Dubas currently has $6.4 million in cap space to work with to re-sign or bring in free agents, but one option available to him may be buying out goalie Petr Mrazek. The 30-year-old has two years left on a three-year, $11.4 million contract (12-6-0, 3.34 GAA, .888 save percentage) and per Cap Friendly, a buyout would result in a $1.033 million cap hit in 2022-23, $833,333 cap hit in 2023-24, and $1.433 million cap hits in 2024-25, and 2025-26.

If Toronto wanted to shorten the cap ramifications on this deal, they could be willing to retain salary equal to the buyout amount in a trade for the remaining two years (avoiding the hit being spread out over four seasons) or take a salary back in a deal, which is possible with a number of teams looking for depth between the pipes.

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Another offseason point of discussion that always throws fan bases into a tizzy (but seemingly never comes to fruition) is the dreaded offer sheet. In a piece for Daily Faceoff, Frank Seravalli speculates that Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin could be a potential target. The 22-year-old blueliner is a restricted free agent after posting 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists) in 51 games last season, and Seravalli believes an NHL club interested in Sandin could use the Leafs cap crunch to their advantage, but with teams not named Carolina or Montreal have been quite hesitant to use an offer sheet as a method of acquiring a player they are interested in.

One hole in the theory is that Toronto can go 10% over the cap during the summer, and GM Kyle Dubas is a fan of the young Swede’s game, so it is likely that the Leafs would match any offer within reason and make other moves to get under the cap.

An offer of $4.2 million per season or less would require compensation of a second-round pick, but it would be hard to believe that an NHL club would offer that amount to a yet-unproven Sandin.

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A large chunk of the Maple Leafs pre-season schedule has been revealed by their Atlantic Division rivals on Thursday.

The Leafs will host the Ottawa Senators in a split-squad day/night doubleheader on September 24, but is not clear whether those games will be at Scotiabank Arena or another venue. The Sens will host their home game at their AHL affiliate’s home arena in Belleville, ON on September 30.

The Canadiens announced they will be playing Toronto at Scotiabank Arena on September 28 and will host the Leafs at the Bell Centre on October 3.

It is expected that the full 2022-23 NHL schedule will be announced sometime next week.


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