With the 2019 Trade Deadline nearly upon us, the Toronto Maple Leafs and general manager Kyle Dubas are tasked with improving the club while dealing with the pressures of the salary cap.
The Leafs could spend to the cap, reap a bonus in the form of then being able to move Nathan Hornton’s cap hit to the long-term injured reserve, and then spend like sailors at the deadline.
The problem with that is that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are going to accumulate somewhere between 3 and 5 million dollars in bonuses (I assume, because I don’t know what bonuses they have in their contract) which would then be pushed to next season.