Pre-Season Review / Season Pre-View Part 2
See part one here:Atlantic Division: Crosby, Malkin, Staal
Northeast Division: 2nd Highest in the league vs. 7th Lowest
If you’re trying to figure out which teams I’m talking about, just stop now. What I’m talking about is salary commitments, specifically that of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the choices they have made when doling out that precious cap space.
The Leafs have the 2nd highest paid blueline in the NHL along with the 7th lowest group of forwards. They pay their defencemen more than everyone except the LA Kings (who knew?), while below them on the front ranks are only teams such as Pittsburgh (lowest when you don’t count Crosby or Malkin’s bonuses), Washington, Anaheim, LA, Chicago and Dallas (Dallas? Seriously? That’s what I thought too). Oh, and in case anyone is now attempting to do the math, the numbers I use include more players than are on the active roster and do not include bonuses. Back to business:
Four of the top highest paid Leafs are defencemen. That’s a big chunk of the salary cap eaten up, mostly by the three guys the Leafs will be counting on the most to improve themselves over last season: Bryan McCabe, Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina. Only Mats Sundin and possibly Andrew Raycroft can be considered to have even a fraction of the importance to the team’s success as those three blueliners.
It’s not a bad strategy, and one that was very successful for teams like the New Jersey Devils (remember the Scott Stevens, Scott Neidermeyer era?), the Colorado Avalanche (Rob Blake, Ray Bourque, Adam Foote anyone?) and others. Will it work for the Leafs? Pre-season says no but JFJ is banking on yes.
My take? In the short term it will fail. Too many new bodies taking up too much ice time in a too new system with a too new coach for cohesion and chemistry to appear overnight. However, in the long term JFJ has done a very good job of creating stability on the blueline, locking up defencemen just entering their prime for the next 3-5 years. These guys have years to learn to play together (though the media and fans will likely demand slightly faster action). It shouldn’t take that long, either. Paul Maurice demands alot from his players, and isn’t afraid to lean on even his stars. McCabe and Kaberle should benefit greatly from being able to play fewer minutes, leaving them better-rested, fresher, and more available to play 5-on-5. Kaberle, in my opinion the undisputed king of the Maple Leaf blueline, should not be having to kill penalties all night.
Now Leaf fans need only pray that their drastically underpaid forward lines can score enough goals to maintain last year’s pace.