Simply put, the salary cap imposed on NHL teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, is broken and must be fixed.
Right now, we may be in off-season mode where teams are allowed to sit above the cap limits, but it is fundamentally affecting teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs ability to do business.
Across the league right now, you currently have 12 teams sitting above the cap limit, with a further 4 teams teetering within $1 million of it (per CapFriendly). That is half the league.
Realistically you must start questioning whether it’s sustainable for the NHL to allow teams to shoot over the cap, especially given nearly all those teams still have restricted free agents yet to be renewed.