Toronto Maple Leafs: 2019-20 season obituary, problems moving forward

The Leafs roster is very oddly constructed and has little flexibility.

General Manager Kyle Dubas did not create all the problems with the Maple Leafs roster, but he has made it so the team will have very little flexibility moving forward.

Dubas has invested just shy of 50 per cent of the team’s $81.5 million in cap room on the big four forwards – John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner and William Nylander.  This is unprecedented and leaves the Leafs with very little flexibility moving forward.

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This is especially true as the cap will stay flat at $81.5 million next season.  Let’s take a look at the Maple Leafs’ roster construction and salary cap room moving forward.

Next season (2020-21), the Leafs currently have just under $4.6 million available, with 17 players under contract.  This is where I remind the intrepid reader that NHL rosters have 23 players on them.

So the Leafs have six spots open for less than $5 million.  Those would all have to be entry-level contracts to make the math work.  The Leafs need to get cheaper at forward, end of story.

Ceci and Barrie are unrestricted free agents and good riddance. The team has Dermott, Ilya Mikheyev and Frederik Gauthier as restricted free agents.  It is hard to imagine veterans Kyle Clifford or Jason Spezza coming back unless it for the veteran’s minimum.

So even if the Leafs wanted to keep this team together for some reason, they would not be able to.  Their only hope to improve the team and keep it under the cap is through trade.

They need to move a forward or forwards for defensive help.  As currently constructed, the team has two or three actual NHL defenceman.

Even if Toronto can patch together another stars and scrubs roster next season, the cap is still suffocating in the future.  It may or may not go back up again, depending on whether or not there are fans at NHL games in 2020-21.

However, as it currently sits, the team has 13 players signed and just over $13 million in cap room for 2021-22.  This problem is not going away any time soon.

I believe the team is too top-heavy at forward, and something needs to be done about that.  Their best players do not do the things that matter the most in the playoffs, and it is showing up year after year.  There is no quick fix, and we will be finding out very soon what Dubas is made of.

Rest in peace, 2019-20 Toronto Maple Leafs season.

What do you think of the Maple Leafs’ 2019-20 season and their early exit against Columbus?  What would you try to do to improve the team going forward?  Let us know in the comments below!