Toronto Maple Leafs

[lucafen4]

Right, gotcha.
I'm honestly surprised other teams in the league don't make more of a stink about this. It's an unfair advantage the Leafs have, despite being onside, and a pretty significant one.
I would do the same thing if I was KD, but I would definitely be complaining if I was an opponent.

There are some other teams that have done this in the past... not for long stretches though that I can recall.
carrying 20 on a roster works for home games. Not when they're running the California triangle or west coast. Van/edm/cgy.

it's cap manipulation until Daly/Bettman start calling it cap-circumvention and push to stitch this hole up in the next collective.

As an added note, if they were to do this for a full season - it would actually build almost 1.5m of cap space at he deadline for an acquisition.

With COVID... I could also see teams traveling with a taxi-squad in case of injury and state by state/province by province having concerns about individuals joining a team which is going to be in some form of bubble during travel. The Leafs and all Cdn teams may end up like the Blue Jays and needing to find a new home ice this season due to border concerns as well.

[2014olympicgold]

Yes, having a 20 man roster because your farm team is in the same city as you is a thing that needs to be fixed over other city perks....

Every city has their perks that with a good GM can lean into to get players to sign. 3 of the final 4 teams were in states that had no taxes on their salary. Teams like Vegas, Leafs, Mtl, NYR can all lean into their significantly better facilities.

If you complain about the Leafs having the ability to gamble on a 20-21 man roster that's the lowest thing the league would look at to create more parity in the cap situation.

[Kofax]

Right, gotcha.
I'm honestly surprised other teams in the league don't make more of a stink about this. It's an unfair advantage the Leafs have, despite being onside, and a pretty significant one.
I would do the same thing if I was KD, but I would definitely be complaining if I was an opponent.

Considering that the leaf's likely contribute the most towards revenue sharing to help prop up some of the lower revenue teams, I think it's fair that they get some kind of advantage out of it.

[lucafen4]

Considering that the leaf's likely contribute the most towards revenue sharing to help prop up some of the lower revenue teams, I think it's fair that they get some kind of advantage out of it.

but to be clear it's not Bettman saying - ok Tor, you can do this.

it's Pridham saying, 'hey if we do this it'll make us cap compliant with a legal roster and the longer we are able to do this the more cap space we can build'

If Vancouver moved its AHL team from Utica out East to Abbotsford they could do the exact same thing.
The advantage comes from having a local/same regional farm team. And a GM/AGM with the knowledge to utilize this to their advantage.

[2014olympicgold]

Teams that could do the same as the Leafs:
Ottawa - Belleville (1-2hr drive?)
NJD - Binghamton (2hr drive)
NYI - Bridgeport Sound (2.5hr drive)
Carolina - Charlotte (2.5hr) drive
CBJ - Cleveland (2hr drive)
Avs - Colorado (1hr drive)
Detroit - Grand Rapids (2hr drive)

And at this point I stopped looking it up because it's pretty apparent most teams have their AHL affiliate 2hrs away. Which isn't far at all for an emergency call up where you can tell the guy to travel to the NHL teams city mid day out of emergency (I'm assuming it's more like a wink wink nudge nudge thing than an actually direction).

I thought AHL teams were further away than a 2hr drive, interesting research. Here's the list, I stopped actually google mapsing the locations of everything and just started scrolling and noticed most seemed to be 2hrs away. https://theahl.com/nhl-affiliations-2019-20

[Dennis]

Off the top of my head you're leaving out

Montreal, Winnipeg, Las Vegas, San Jose, LA, NYR, Buffalo, Boston, Dallas, Anaheim, and Chicago.

[2014olympicgold]

Off the top of my head you're leaving out

Montreal, Winnipeg, Las Vegas, San Jose, LA, NYR, Buffalo, Boston, Dallas, Anaheim, and Chicago.

Ya I got lazy when I realize that it wasn't like 5 teams.

[Dennis]

I don't blame you. It's not even a trend the Leafs started by any means. Their farm team was in Newfoundland for years.

[2014olympicgold]

I don't blame you. It's not even a trend the Leafs started by any means. Their farm team was in Newfoundland for years.

Yeah, I was in the belief Toronto was benefiting from having their AHL team close, but over the last 10yrs teams have moved their AHL teams closer if possible. So yes Toronto is one of a few teams that have their AHL team in the same city, but it's not enough in my mind to suggest Toronto is at an advantage over others.

Leafs having money to likely charter flight out guys on the road quickly would be more beneficial. Having a 20man roster is just a test on your AHL team more than anything I'd think. You'd need to have replacements that can get to your NHL games ASAP and ready to play in your system with only a matter of hrs notice. Or have a coach who can for a game play with 11F (assuming the Leafs have 7D on the roster). League rules allows an emergency goalie recall with no cap implications if it meets the criteria, which would be Dell.

I think you're allowed to bring in AHL players for emergency roles for practice, which might be the advantage the Leafs have as the Marlies are down the road and can orchestrate that pretty easily.

[Mr. Guru]

Dermott signs...,...getting worked up about nothing

[havanablast21]

Dermott signs...,...getting worked up about nothing

And for less than 900K. Now there’s a kid who wants to stay and be part of the solution.

[Dennis]

Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Robertson-Tavares-Marner
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Barabanov
Thornton-Spezza-Simmonds
Vesey

Reilly-Brodie
Muzzin-Lehtonen
Dermott-Holl
Bogosian

Andersen
Campbell


Not even 400k over the cap. Injuries and paper transactions can erase that over the season.

[tweetdrivr]

Surely Bogosion is a better option than Holl on that bottom pair?

[Goldendelicious]

And for less than 900K. Now there’s a kid who wants to stay and be part of the solution.

He hasn't really done anything to merit getting any more money at this point.

[havanablast21]

Surely Bogosion is a better option than Holl on that bottom pair?

Is he? On or off the IR? Lol.