Ceci’s one-year, $4.5 million comes in a couple hundred thousand above his qualifying offer, and surprisingly, it did not come with a heavy signing bonus-laden structure, as the $4.5 million will all be paid out in base salary. Signing bonuses aren’t as relevant in the case of a one-year deal, but giving him a bunch of the money up-front would’ve made him more marketable as a right-handed defenseman on something close to a prorated league-minimum base salary should the Leafs have decided to cut bait at some point during the year.
Using LTIR relief means the Leafs are not going to be banking any cap space at all this season, so any midseason or deadline additions they’ll be looking to make would need to be done on a dollar-in, dollar-out basis.