21 May 2020 17:12:18
Tor gets: Kesler contract
Anaheim gets: Bracco
I still don't really know the point of getting Someone on LTIR, but somehow it helps. I don' think Kesler is worth very much, but I could be wrong. We take advantage of the fact we are the richest team in the nhl.

1.) 21 May 2020
21 May 2020 18:00:05
@farmboy

You answered your own question. As Leafs are the richest team in the league, the only thing that prevents them from buying up all the star players regardless of cost is the salary cap. But, as a rich team that can afford to pay past the salary cap, Leafs are able to take on LTIR contracts like Clarkson and Horton. As a result, their cap space effectively becomes available for the Leafs to use to surpass the salary cap. Last year, a ncludibg the Horton and Clarkson contracts, Leafs had an actual payroll of close to $100M. And that's how taking on LTIR can help rich teams like the Leafs who are facing cap issues.

It is not exactly recommended though. Their are negatives as well as positives. It's best if we can avoid dipping into LTIR. But as long as Leafs are facing cap issues, they will likely want to take on at least one or two LTIR contracts to give them a cushion, just in case.

2.) 21 May 2020
21 May 2020 19:53:58
Why would Toronto do this?

3.) 21 May 2020
21 May 2020 19:58:33
What are the negatives Leafs GM? LTIR is not something I understand very well.

4.) 21 May 2020
21 May 2020 21:14:02
One issue is that in the off-season LTIR doesn't exist. So if your cap hit is 200 million your breaking the rules in the off season as you can't go over by that much.

Another issue with LTIR is trade deadline time. If the cap is 50 million (example) and team A has 49 in player cap hits. Team B has 55 million including LTIR space. Team A at the trade deadline can actually spend 2+ million on a player. Team B even with LTIR space of 60 million cannot aquire a new player.

Without being to complicated those are two downsides to LTIR space. There are many articles written about this as well if you just Google it. A lot of fans seem to think LTIR space is just free money which it isn't.

5.) 21 May 2020
21 May 2020 21:33:38
I do that understand it fully either obviously. That's why we aren't real GM's.

I do know one big knock against it is that when it comes to trade deadline, you can't pro-rate a players salary. So, for example, if Leafs entered deadline without having dipped into LTIR, and they have $2M in cap space, they are able to take on a player with a cap hit of close to $6M-$7M.

Whereas if they go into deadline having used, say, $3M LTIR and they still have $5M in relief available to them, they can only take on up to $5M in extra cap space.

The reason for this is that the funds for the player are not coming out of payroll. It is coming out of the LTIR pool available to the team.

There are other negatives too. Like I said, I don't know all the intricate details. Dubas himself probably doesn't fully understand it. That's why he hired the guy that wrote the book to work for him as his capologist. That gives us a pretty big advantage when it comes to knowing how to bend the rules and what loopholes are available to us.

6.) 21 May 2020
21 May 2020 22:48:49
Thanks LeafsGM! that gives a lot of clarification. It is very very complicated. I don't know why they even have it, and why you can just perform a free buyout or something.

7.) 22 May 2020
22 May 2020 03:36:02
@LeafsLife and @FarmBoy

Just to clarify a point LeafsLife made. LTIR usually counts against the cap in the off season is true, but not if the player has been medically cleared to never play again or is expected to miss a significant portion of the beginning of the season. So, for instance, Leafs were actually able to exceed the cap when they signed Marner in the off season because they were allowed to use Horton and Clarkson's LTIR, as both players are medically determined ineligible to ever play again. In a case like this, it's like the contract doesn't even exist. Except when trade deadline rolls around and you can't take advantage of prorating cap hits.

8.) 22 May 2020
22 May 2020 17:45:36
I guess the one thing that would work in your favor is if you had enough cap space using LTIR that you don't need the trade deadlines prorated cap hits. If you could exceed the cap by say 30 million who cares if other teams get a cheap player at deadline?

9.) 23 May 2020
23 May 2020 02:33:32
I wondered if that was possible myself. And theoretically, I think it is. I'm no lawyer or nothing. But I don't think there's a limit to how many players, or a limit in dollars, for what can be placed on LTIR. I've seen some teams with 3-5 guys on LTIR all at the same time. Leafs had Reilly, Muzzin, Ceci, Johnsson all on LTIR at one point this season. So if those guys weren't expected to come back before playoffs, we could have really loaded up if we wanted to.