Toronto Maple Leafs could pull off one of the most unexpected trades of the summer
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Steven Lorentz keeps getting labeled cap relief in Toronto.
John Chayka spent the summer rebuilding the Maple Leafs' bottom six from scratch. Nick Paul, Colton Sissons, Brandon Duhaime, Teddy Blueger, Jack Roslovic and Zack MacEwen all arrived to fight for the same jobs Lorentz once held alone.
Add Dakota Joshua, and Jim Hiller suddenly has two lines of bodies for one line of minutes. On paper, the fan favourite is the odd man out.
The cap-space story does not add up
Lorentz carries a $1.35 million hit with two years left. Moving that against a rising salary cap frees almost nothing in real spending room.
The actual squeeze is the 50-contract limit. Toronto sits at 49 of 50 standard player contracts, so every new signing forces a subtraction somewhere, and Lorentz is a contract slot, not a cap problem.
He is the asset, not the casualty
Lorentz is going first because he is the only depth piece anyone will actually pay for.
Two cheap years, penalty-kill minutes, real size and a 2024 Cup ring is exactly the profile a contender trades a pick to rent.
Joshua's $3.25 million is far harder to move, and the new arrivals just signed, so you can see why Lorentz is the odd man out.
So the good-and-cheap veteran gets sold precisely because he is good and cheap. The return, likely a mid-round pick, is the tell: Toronto is cashing in liquidity, not dumping a problem.
Cap-strapped contenders needing cheap, physical, penalty-kill depth are the obvious buyers, which is why his name surfaced with a deadline still months away.
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