As Free Agency gets underway today on a random Friday in October, instead of July 1, the Maple Leafs have enough cap space to sign Ilya Mikhehev, Travis Dermott and then go buy a coffee. Maybe a muffin too. But they need defencemen and depth forwards and there’s not a lot of ways of making that happen.
Offseason cap space calculations go into effect today, and that gives the Leafs over $11 million to add players now and fix the salary cap later. This calculation, which includes a 10% cushion to the upper limit, stays in effect until the last day of training camp.