In his post-season presser, Kyle Dubas said he doesn’t want to chip away at the cap space next season before he’s got the Mitch Marner contract finalized. He also said he was going to almost immediately start things rolling with Darren Ferris, Marner’s agent. There are 51 days from May 1 to the first day of the draft, so realistically, they have six weeks to get this done if the Leafs want to negotiate any trades prior to draft day.
The NHL projected a cap ceiling of $83 million for next season back in December. This value will be finalized over the offseason, and last year, the league announced the final number right before the draft, so Dubas is going to have to work with the estimate.