Kadri Cut, Frogren and Hanson to the Marlies

And I don't recall seeing or hearing anything about Dale Mitchell, another promising prospect. Was he even with the team for the pre-season? Is he injured?

Even for the people who follow cap hits, seeing these numbers in black and white is astounding. They're spending a lot of money this year.

http://www.capgeek.com/charts.php?Team=4

Stalberg needs to be on that team before Kadri and Hanson. This was the good decision.

marakh wrote:Stalberg needs to be on that team before Kadri and Hanson. This was the good decision.

Agreed - I don't think this will do much harm for Kadri's development either.

Their offence should still be OK. Hagman, Grabovski, Stempniak, Bozak, Kulemin, Blake, Ponikarovsky, Stajan, and Stalberg will try to hold the fort until Kessel arrives.

asq2 wrote:

marakh wrote:Stalberg needs to be on that team before Kadri and Hanson. This was the good decision.

Agreed - I don't think this will do much harm for Kadri's development either.

Their offence should still be OK. Hagman, Grabovski, Stempniak, Bozak, Kulemin, Blake, Ponikarovsky, Stajan, and Stalberg will try to hold the fort until Kessel arrives.

Take those three bolded question marks (Imo) and you've still got a top-6 where each player is easily capable of putting up 50+ points. I don't know where this idea comes from that the Leafs won't score goals. They have very good 2nd and 3rd line depth.

N4L wrote:So, who is going to be getting Kessel the puck?

Who said they won't be bringing him up in November.

wprager wrote:

N4L wrote:So, who is going to be getting Kessel the puck?

Who said they won't be bringing him up in November.

I'm betting he won't be ready until December.

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:

N4L wrote:So, who is going to be getting Kessel the puck?

Who said they won't be bringing him up in November.

I'm betting he won't be ready until December.

That too. They can save cap space with Kessel on the LTIR and Kadri in the minors.

asq2 wrote:

marakh wrote:Stalberg needs to be on that team before Kadri and Hanson. This was the good decision.

Agreed - I don't think this will do much harm for Kadri's development either.

Their offence should still be OK. Hagman, Grabovski, Stempniak, Bozak, Kulemin, Blake, Ponikarovsky, Stajan, and Stalberg will try to hold the fort until Kessel arrives.

I have serious doubts that the Leafs will even be able to slot Bozak and his $3.725 mil (for a guy who never played a single NHL game!) salary into their lineup, because of salary cap concerns. Kessel on LTIR (if it happens) will help, and the Leafs have proved willing to eat 1-way salaries. Still, we're talking about another $3 mil in 1-way salaries they'll have to eat.

Man, I can't believe what a mess they are in, financially, already. I wasn't really paying attention to their money situation before -- I just assumed that, with that lineup, they'd have money to spare -- but now that I'm looking it over, they look like they're in a really bad spot.

If you're a Leafs fan, I guess the silver lining is that you have potentially almost $20 mil in contracts coming off the books next year -- in Poni, Stajan, Stempniak, Kulmenin, Primeau, Mayers, Wallin, Van Ryn, Exelby, White, Toskala, and Gustavsson -- but still. Bringing Kadri and Bozak to the lineup adds yet another $5.5 mil. That means, next year, you're starting off with a base of Kessel, Blake, Hagman, Grabovski, Orr, Kadri, and Bozak up front; Komisarek, Kaberle, Beauchemin, Finger, and Schenn on back; and no goalie; all for about $42 mil. Tack on another $4 mil to that figure, however, if they use the bonus cushion this year to squeak by.

That means that, come next year, the Leafs will need a minimum of 5 more forwards, 1 D, and 2 goalies. If you want to re-sign guys like Kulemin, Stajan, and White, you lose even more cap space. The Leafs are just not going to be in the position to 'spend, spend, spend', as many predicted.

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:

N4L wrote:So, who is going to be getting Kessel the puck?

Who said they won't be bringing him up in November.

I'm betting he won't be ready until December.

That too. They can save cap space with Kessel on the LTIR and Kadri in the minors.

I'm already calculating for Kadri (and Bozak) in the minors. And whether or not Kessel will qualify for LTIR remains to me seen. Seriously, it's a mess. Take a look at this nightmare for yourself.

PLAYERBONUSCAP HIT

2009-2010 Toronto Maple Leafs
FORWARDS
Phil Kessel	—	$5,400,000
Jason Blake	—	$4,000,000
Niklas Hagman	—	$3,000,000
Mikhail Grabovski	—	$2,900,000
Lee Stempniak	—	$2,500,000
Alexei Ponikarovsky	—	$2,105,000
Matthew Stajan	—	$1,750,000
Nikolai Kulemin	($850,000)	$1,487,500
Wayne Primeau	—	$1,400,000
Jamal Mayers	—	$1,333,333
Colton Orr	—	$1,000,000
Rickard Wallin	—	$800,000
John Mitchell	—	$487,500
DEFENSEMEN
Mike Komisarek	—	$4,500,000
Tomas Kaberle	—	$4,250,000
Francois Beauchemin	—	$3,800,000
Jeff Finger	—	$3,500,000
Luke Schenn	($2,100,000)	$2,975,000
Mike Van Ryn	—	$2,900,000
Garnet Exelby	—	$1,391,666
Ian White	—	$850,000
GOALTENDERS
Vesa Toskala	—	$4,000,000
Jonas Gustavsson	($1,600,000)	$2,500,000
BUYOUTS
Darcy Tucker	—	$1,000,000
Andrew Raycroft	—	$733,333
LOST VIA REENTRY WAIVERS
NONE
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS
ROSTER SIZE	23
SALARY CAP	$56,800,000
PAYROLL	$60,563,332*
BONUSES	$4,550,000*
CAP SPACE	$496,668*

*This team is already effectively $4 mil over the cap, with no Bozak, Kadri, or Frogen on the roster. Only the bonus cushion allows them to squeak under, by deferring the problem to next year. And I can't stress how much I think this year in particular is the absolute wrong time to start eating into next year's cap (which I firmly believe will dip, by how much, I don't know).

wow thats priceless! How could a team with so little star power be over the cap?? How does a team so far away from being a contender even come within 5 million of the cap? wtf are they doing

CCgotITcovered wrote: wow thats priceless! How could a team with so little star power be over the cap?? How does a team so far away from being a contender even come within 5 million of the cap? wtf are they doing

One thing they're gonna do is let Stempniak and Poni walk. They have quite a few upcoming UFAs who probably will be dealt (if anyone wants them) or not re-signed. Poni's a decent player, he may get them a 2nd or decent prospect at the deadline.

Not to mention Stajan, Primeau, Mayers, Toskala, Van Ryn, so there's 11 million coming off the books give or take.

CCgotITcovered wrote: wow thats priceless! How could a team with so little star power be over the cap?? How does a team so far away from being a contender even come within 5 million of the cap? wtf are they doing

I know. I was literally floored when I started looking into the situation. I had no idea they were in such a financial mess already. Welcome to the Burke Era, Leafs fans.

Did you know that "Burke" is actually Celtic for "fiscally irresponsible"?

SpezDispenser wrote:Not to mention Stajan, Primeau, Mayers, Toskala, Van Ryn, so there's 11 million coming off the books give or take.

Dude, see my post above. I go over this.

What the hell is going on with this team?

rooneypoo wrote:

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:

N4L wrote:So, who is going to be getting Kessel the puck?

Who said they won't be bringing him up in November.

I'm betting he won't be ready until December.

That too. They can save cap space with Kessel on the LTIR and Kadri in the minors.

I'm already calculating for Kadri (and Bozak) in the minors. And whether or not Kessel will qualify for LTIR remains to me seen. Seriously, it's a mess. Take a look at this nightmare for yourself.

I never said they'd be fine to bring in Kadri and Bozak. I just said they'd save cap space having Kessel on the LTIR and Kadri out of the lineup until he's brought up, whenever that may be.

Clearly, there would have to be additional moves. There are some seriously bad contracts there: Finger, Blake, Komisarek, even Beauchemin, Schenn is barely a sophomore earning more than $5M!!!!! Ponikarovski is actually underpaid, relative to most of the other forwards.

And this year Gustavsson is making $4.1M? He was *undrafted*! Sure, he could be good, but why not let the kid prove it first before throwing that money at him?

I swear, I don't want any top-five picks. Would be better to trade down for a mid-round 1st and a 2nd, let these kids come up at a nice pace so that they are happy to get a sniff at the NHL 2-3 years later, with an $800K 2-way salary, maybe with bonuses taking it as far as $1.3M but not much further.

Rooney - why wouldn't Kessel qualify for LTIR?