Toronto Maple Leafs Exploit NHL Loophole to Sign Two Highly-Touted Free Agents

"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."