The basics are easy. The signing of John Tavares adds $11 million in cap hit for the Leafs this season, which without William Nylander signed, leaves the team with almost $14 million in cap space for him and Andreas Johnsson. The Leafs need to add some more incidental players to the roster, too, but they won’t be expensive. This is all doable without using the LTIR pool created by Nathan Horton’s contract. But that extra $5.3 million is always there to use for additions to the roster.
That’s this year. Things get tighter next year with the contracts to Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner coming on board, but that’s not a problem to solve, so much as a goad to focus the minds of the Leafs’ brass to cut the fat from the roster, to begin the years long process of making the tough call on players.