The Leafs are taking advantage of the deferred compensation structure — which is becoming more common in the league — whereby Jake McCabe will collect bonus money at the end of his contract, thus lowering the cap hit from the face value of $4.7 million AAV to $4.51 million annually against the cap books. Here is Bob McKenzie’s explanation on deferred bonus payments and their benefits for both the team (cap-wise) and player (tax-wise), for the uninitiated:
Something to keep an eye on today is whether some NHL teams structure deals with “deferred compensation.” I’ve heard there’s been more a lot more talk of it this year.