Elliotte Friedman Reveals the Toronto Maple Leafs Are on the Verge of Signing Another Free Agent
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The Toronto Maple Leafs have been looking towards the NCAA for free agents and according to Elliotte Friedman, the team wants to expand their efforts.
Both of these players came straight from the NCAA and overall, they are guys that could have a real impact with the Leafs going forward.
Plenty of other NHL teams are going the NCAA route right now and there have been rumblings that the Maple Leafs are looking to make some more moves.
Toronto Maple Leafs continue to watch the NCAA
On 32 Thoughts this week, Elliotte Friedman confirmed as such, saying that the Leafs are still pursuing the college market.
I've also heard Toronto isn't done in the college free agent market. I think there's more coming.
Meanwhile, Friedman also noted that the Leafs exploited a loophole in order to sign Prokop and Haymes.
They signed both players for $100K less than the average entry level deal, although there was a good reason for this.
"This isn't the first time that the Maple Leafs have done this... there's a rule in there that's called the roster emergency exception and, basically, what it means is that a team can recall a player from the AHL without counting their cap hit in an emergency if the player's cap hit is at least $100,000 below the rookie maximum.
Next year's rookie maximum is $975,000, so if the Maple Leafs are at the cap and suddenly they find themselves in an emergency situation, both Haymes and Prokop can be called up without their cap hit counting because they're $100,000 below the cap. That's why it was done that way."
"One of the things the Maple Leafs sell is that they say 'hey, next year iF we get into an emergency cap situation, it increases the chances of you being called up because you are under this number,' and that's why those players were convinced to doing it.
Someone also said to me if you take a look at the PTOs, they both signed PTOs for this year, they also get paid to play under those PTOs, so you make up some of that money by playing this year but that's the reason why those two players agreed to it."
Next year's rookie maximum is $975,000, so if the Maple Leafs are at the cap and suddenly they find themselves in an emergency situation, both Haymes and Prokop can be called up without their cap hit counting because they're $100,000 below the cap. That's why it was done that way."
"One of the things the Maple Leafs sell is that they say 'hey, next year iF we get into an emergency cap situation, it increases the chances of you being called up because you are under this number,' and that's why those players were convinced to doing it.
Someone also said to me if you take a look at the PTOs, they both signed PTOs for this year, they also get paid to play under those PTOs, so you make up some of that money by playing this year but that's the reason why those two players agreed to it."
No matter what, this is going to be very interesting and we cannot wait to see what the Leafs decide to do.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are building a young core in the minors and this is great to see.
| POLL | ||
MARS 29 | 124 ANSWERS Elliotte Friedman Reveals the Toronto Maple Leafs Are on the Verge of Signing Another Free Agent Do you believe the Toronto Maple Leafs are smart to poach from the NCAA? | ||
| YES | 113 | 91.1 % |
| NO | 11 | 8.9 % |
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