Maple Leafs forced to play with bargain bin D corps

If you want to understand the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defensive predicament, then you must first follow the money trail.

The Maple Leafs spend roughly 66% of their $82.5 million salary cap allotment on forwards, 27% percent on defensemen, and seven percent on goaltending. They spend 48.9% of their cap on forwards Auston Matthews ($11.64 million), Mitch Marner ($10.9 million), John Tavares ($11 million), and William Nylander ($6.962 million).

This means the Maple Leafs are an offensive team and a team that must get its money’s worth out of their top defensemen.

But Toronto’s strategy has been undermined by three critical injuries on the blue line. The Maple Leafs announced Tuesday that Morgan Rielly is on the long-term injury reserve. TSN reported Rielly has a knee injury that will keep him out of the lineup for four to six weeks. He was injured in a collision with New York Islanders’ Kyle Palmieri

Before Rielly went down, the Maple Leafs already had Jake Muzzin on the LTIR with a spine injury. T.J.Brodie is on the injury list with an oblique issue. He won’t play on the team’s current road trip. That’s $18 million in defensemen out of commission. Rielly is the team’s best all-around defenseman, Muzzin is a valuable shutdown defenseman and Brodie plays 21-plus minutes per game.

When the Maple Leafs play New Jersey Wednesday, they will use a defensive corps with a salary cap hit of about $7 million. The Devils have defenseman Dougie Hamilton earning $9 million for this season.

Even before the injuries, the Maple Leafs’ defense wasn’t one of the NHL's best. GM Kyle Dubas seems to be always in discussions to improve it.

Undoubtedly, he’s been on his cell phone over the past 24 hours. The Maple Leafs aren’t likely to make a major move, like trying to acquire San Jose’s Erik Karlsson or Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the Maple Leafs are interested in Arizona’s Conor Timmons, a 24-year-old with potential.

🖐 Thanks in part to Jeff Skinner's five-point night, the Buffalo Sabres snapped their eight-game losing streak with a 7-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens last night. The Sabres wasted no time, scoring three goals in just the first 2:13 of the first period, the second-fastest three goals to begin a game in franchise history.

☝️ Shane Wright scored his first professional goal in his AHL debut last night versus the Calgary Wranglers. The 18-year-old forward's backcheck helped force a turnover that led to his breakaway where he made no mistake, burying a quick snapshot high glove. Kraken's first-round pick is on a two-week AHL conditioning stint before likely being released to play for Team Canada in the World Junior Championships.  

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