Salary dumps, planning for Cowan, and the Stanley Cup Finals influence on DNA: Leaflets

The Edmonton Oilers vs. Florida Panthers is an interesting matchup from a Maple Leafs perspective and in an effort to make all things about the Leafs, the finals seems to a battle between what the Leafs were (although without having McDavid as the high end piece is a big difference) and what the Maple Leafs seem to be looking to become (at least from my vantage point Toronto seems to be attempting to emulate the Panthers although previously not willing to sacrifice their core as part of that commitment.)

The Oilers are very much what the Leafs were, top end talent gifted to them through the draft. It goes without saying that both McDavid and Draisaitl rise to the occasion more than say Matthews and Marner, but at least on paper there are similarities, and one that is more of faulting the Leafs in the execution of the design rather than the construction of the team.

The Panthers, on the other hand are special, not really, but arguably harder to execute on their vision. It is essentially a recreation of the Boston Bruins and seems largely dependent on having a perennial Selke winner at the center of it. Even the Panthers aren’t the Bruins in all senses. There is no direct replacement for Zdeno Chara, there is a greater inconsistency in the goaltending out of Bobrovsky than the championship Bruins teams produced, but nevertheless, they are a team about winning it the hard way, and that is very different from teams like Tampa, Vegas, and Colorado that have won in recent years.

At a time when the Leafs are looking to change their DNA and functioning very much in a copycat league, it will be interesting to see how these two teams in the finals impact the direction that Brad Treliving will go in establishing a new direction for the Leafs.

Here are a couple more stray thoughts:

The case for salary dump trades

Often when talking about the Maple Leafs and salary dump trades it seems to be done from the perspective of getting Max Domi, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, David Kampf, Calle Jarnkrok, or Ryan Reaves off the Leafs salary cap page. Worthy pursuits, in my opinion, but not the salary dump focus that Toronto should have.

With Toronto potentially having more cap space than worthwhile targets in free agency (assuming Mitch Marner doesn’t re-sign with the Leafs), overspending and overcommitting on players like Nikolaj Ehlers, Sam Bennett, or Brock Boeser won’t result in some glorious new direction for the Maple Leafs, and is simply banking on a player who has just earned the biggest payday of their career showing up and playing like they are still trying to earn the biggest payday of their career.

My argument is that the Leafs should let other teams take on those players, or at the very least limit themselves to one true mercenary.

With teams like Colorado, Washington, New York, Vegas, Dallas, St. Louis, Edmonton, and others already pushing the limits of their cap space while likely wanting to pursue opportunities to upgrade, the best course of action might be for Toronto to become a salary dumping ground this offseason and take on players who might be short term underperformers or less than ideal roster fits and be paid to take them.

We’ve seen discounted players move previously, as last season the Penguins picked up Reilly Smith for a 3rd round pick (later flipped for a 2nd and 7th), or even more significantly you can look at moves like when the Leafs unloaded Patrick Marleau along with a 1st round pick to remove his salary. A team like the Leafs that is light on prospects might want to restock the cupboard, even if it is only so those picks can be flipped at the trade deadline.

As things sit today, there are 11 50-point+ players in unrestricted free agency. Presumably Marner is gone from the Leafs, and Tavares will be back in Toronto. That’s nine other players to consider and of those nine, four will be 35 or older next season.

In contrast, you have a team like the Golden Knights who have William Karlsson that they could be interested in moving on from after a down year last year and would potentially like that $5.9M of cap space to take a run at Mitch Marner. You could make a similar argument about the Rangers and Chris Kreider, or the Oilers and Adam Henrique. It’s worth noting that all of these players would likely carry lower cap hits than if the Leafs were to pursue similar players in free agency.

It would be nice to see Treliving take a bit of a creative approach and if he is as tuned into GM rivals as NHL insiders claim he is, the Leafs should be able to build a solid new look roster at very little cost and while avoiding a long term commitment to “best available” free agents.

Is it wrong to consider Easton Cowan in your mock 2025-26 lineup?

At a time when there isn’t much to be happy about with the Maple Leafs, Easton Cowan is leaving his junior career behind in the best possible way. A big performance as a Memorial Cup Champion/MVP. That’s damned exciting.

While that is exciting, it raises the question of whether fans should pump the brakes on seeing him in Maple Leafs uniform next season or whether the assumption should be that he has to work his way up from the Marlies?

Brad Treliving’s history says that Cowan won’t be on the Leafs roster as a given. Treliving’s history in Calgary showed a reluctance to give players like Dustin Wolf, Matt Phillips, and Jakob Pelletier much of a look even when the writing was on the wall that the Flames were bound for the draft lottery. The lack of opportunity for Fraser Minten, Nikita Grebenkin, Alex Steeves, and Topi Niemela show that the tie very much goes to the veteran, even when that veteran might be Ryan Reaves.

That said, there is something inherently foolish about that approach, especially in an 82-game season. A young player getting decreasingly sheltered games over an 82-game season that has shown significant potential in their junior/minor league careers to date are likely to surpass your typical bottom six forward or bottom pairing defenceman at some point over the course of the season, the end result is a deeper, more skilled roster. If things don’t look to be going as planned, it is fairly easy to cheaply replace a bottom of the roster player, and you are sending a talented player down to the AHL with a much clearer understanding of what they need to work on to be successful in the NHL.

The talent upside on an entry level contract should be something that NHL GMs embrace, not actively fight against, and based on the success of Cowan’s career so far, he’s earned at least a quarter of a season start on the Leafs roster to see what he can do or develop into at that level.