Last year, I looked at the Leafs situation on the morning of July 1, and I said that it’s good to be broke on free agent day. It is. Being broke keeps you from doing anything foolish, so if you sign a big free agent, you need to be sure it’s the right move. I think when we discuss the salary cap and discover there isn’t cap space to spend like an insomniac with Amazon one-click enabled, we assume that’s bad. But having to always make smart choices drives player evaluation and leads teams to putting better players on the ice and paying them appropriately.
Deciding who to trade this season is tougher for the Leafs
