The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired the contract of retired forward David Clarkson from the Vegas Golden Knights. The deal will see Garret Sparks go to the Golden Knights while Toronto will also receive a 2020 fourth-round pick. Clarkson has one year remaining on his contract and carries a $5.25MM cap hit. He will spend the year on long-term injured reserve. With the extra space, the Golden Knights have re-signed Deryk Engelland to a one-year $700K contract that also includes up to $800K in performance bonuses.
A deal like this appears confusing on the surface, given Toronto’s cap crunch and the fact that they still need to sign Mitch Marner. The most likely reason for it though is that the team is already planning on going deep into LTIR with Nathan Horton’s contract (and perhaps Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott who are both on the shelf to start the year following various surgeries) and can use the Clarkson deal to go even further. This is not necessarily the case for the Golden Knights, who were well over the cap before moving Clarkson and needed to shed salary before the end of the offseason. Technically the Maple Leafs could wait until the first day of the season to sign Marner, avoiding offseason LTIR (which has a slightly different calculation for how much is added to the cap ceiling) in order to open enough room. Clarkson and Horton have a combined $10.55MM cap hit which, depending on how close the Maple Leafs can get their roster to the current $81.5MM salary cap ceiling, would be added on top to give them a new ceiling of ~$92MM.
Clarkson only has $1MM of actual salary remaining on his contract, but was making things much more difficult for the Golden Knights as they approach the season. If they can avoid it, it is almost always better for a team to not be using long-term injured reserve space as it can cause huge roster issues if you get into injury trouble and has the potential to cause cap overages from performance bonuses. By moving Clarkson, the Golden Knights are actually now projected to be a little more than $1MM under the cap ceiling, though they still have Nikita Gusev to sign (or trade).
Vegas also adds Sparks in the deal, giving the team a legitimate third (or perhaps second) option in net behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Malcolm Subban. The former AHL Goaltender of the Year has just a $750K one-way contract, making him more than affordable if the team decides Subban is not up to the task or someone suffers an injury. Sparks has played in 37 NHL games, recording an .898 save percentage. His numbers in the minor leagues though are spectacular, meaning he may have more to give at the highest level. The 26-year old goaltender will be an unrestricted free agent next summer and the Maple Leafs had seemingly moved on by re-signing Michael Hutchinson and bringing in Michal Neuvirth on a professional tryout.
Interestingly, a deal like this may not only open up enough room for Marner to sign. Depending on what the Maple Leafs do, they may be able to clear enough space to fit in Jake Gardiner, who remains unsigned despite coming into the offseason as arguably the best defenseman in unrestricted free agency. Gardiner has indicated his desire to stay if possible, though obviously nothing is official at this point.
Basically, the Maple Leafs admitted to themselves that they would need to use long-term injured reserve once again this season and have pushed even more chips to the middle. This kind of a move is only possible because Auston Matthews has now graduated out of his entry-level deal, which brought with it the opportunity for millions of dollars in performance bonuses. It’s important to note though that this is not just free cap space, but an intricate transaction that requires the team to be very careful with how they use their roster throughout the season. The Maple Leafs can afford to do things like this because of the organization’s financial might, an advantage some other teams do not have.
Huh!?
Lmao full circle.
There has to be more cap relief for TOR that hasn’t been announced yet for this to make any senses!
More cap space for Marner. It’s coming soon
link to capfriendly.com
link to capfriendly.com
and a fourth rounder, Weird
Hopefully Gavin can help out on info, does Leafs pay the entire $5,250,000 ? or on LTIR contracts do they pay the entire salary for length of contract.
Guess Vegas has the money to give Gusev now they dumped the Clarkson salary!
Horton and Clarkson the LTIR Hall of Fame
Amk3510 – don’t forget Pronger and Lupul!
The hockey world is a funny place. Leafs traded Clarkson to the Jackets for Horton’s contract… Columbus traded Clarkson’s contract to the Knights. Now the Leafs have re-acquired Clarkson all the while trying to clear cap space to sign Marner? Dubas is such a stooge.
It’s basically Sparks for a fourth. They’re just burning Clarksons money but it doesn’t effect their cap.
still zero chance Leafs sign Marner. zero.
how is this a stooge move manos?
Guessing Clarkson’s salary is mostly paid by insurance and no cap hit. Sparks cap hit gone. Get a 4th rounder too.
I actually think at this point Toronto is trying to bait teams into an offer sheet.
this is smart and likely indicates a marner deal is getting closer. the leafs can go over the cap even more now to get him signed as they gave more LTIR room
See! This is what happens when you’re a backup goalie and you run your yap about the “team’s performance.” Maybe Vegas has designs on putting Sparks through waivers, and hope he gets claimed to get him off their books as soon as possible. I was under the impression that George & Kelly aren’t anywhere close to done playing musical chairs with the personnel yet. Nice to see Deryk get thrown a bone for his loyalty & leadership.
JD — Ditto! Twice! David Clarkson’s hot-potato contract reminds me of “8 Heads in a Duffel Bag”…
I think you need to learn how the NHL Salary cap works, and what LTIR means.
Montreal and Bergevin is on the phone now for Marner.
It’s a shame they couldn’t figure out how to include Joffrey Lupul and Jeff Finger in this deal. Get all of their bad decisions in one transaction.
Leafs pick up much needed cap space via LTIR, pick up a 4th, find Sparks a new home in the west, and are only on the hook to pay Clarkson $1 mil. Seems like a logical move.
Gerald-Marner cannot speak French
I can’t speak French either, Au Revoir Hopefully for the Leaf faithful he learns.
On second thought , after re-reading some of the information by some of great people on this page, on the move with Clarkson, and the cap space may look better for as stated that the deal maybe in the works on new contract with Marner in resigning contract , he is a good player and don’t see him going anywhere including Montreal. I hope he resigns enjoy watching him play.
if anything this ensures the leafs can match up to the 10.5 million it would take to give up 4 first round draft picks.
Another example of how the leafs having money really still gives them an advantage over more than half the league.
Thank you ThePriceWasRight , couldn’t have said it better myself, and the price is right for Marner to remain a Leaf.
Vegas better sign Gusev!
I don’t understand exactly what’s happening here. The article makes it sound like they get a bonus 5 mil from taking on Clarkson, but I thought they just got an exemption from his money, which is not the same thing as an extra 5 mil. So is their new cap ceiling 92 million accounting for Horton and Clarkson and 81 without? Or do they get bonus cap space and they can now spend 92 on real players? That doesn’t make any sense but how else would it open up room for Marner…
And if that’s the case shouldn’t these contracts have positive trade value going into their final year? I’d think a bonus 5 mil in cap room would be worth a 1st/2nd rounder…
Who thinks Manos is the sharpest chisel in the drawer and should take over Dubas’ job?
hi connor what this allows the leafs to do is go over the cap number and not worry that they dont have space for marner unless someone wants to offer 12 million plus. while right now they are up against the cap, it’s with likely ltir contracts included right now.
also if an offer sheet comes in for marner, they can place contracts on LTIR to build cap space vs have to scramble to trade players to create room.
But they couldn’t have just used the 5 mil in cap room from before acquiring Clarkson plus the LTIR bonus from Horton for the same amount?
link to spotrac.com
Gavin , mailbag and live chat isn’t available as of yet and don’t understand NHL contracts, and hope you have a few minutes of your time on Spotrac.com it has Toronto as – $934,699 in cap space does that mean they are still over cap , or with the Clarkson deal and LTIR contracts and with Horton, don’t know if can use this on here , what do the Maple Leafs actually have in available cap space in reference to Marner’s contract signing. I hope you or some one that understands contracts thou am Hockey Fanatic and tho am Black Hawk fan from Tennessee, I really like Marner, what is future looking like in keeping him on this team as would also coming fan of Leafs more than other teams in East. Hopefully someone can help this hillbilly from Tennessee. Thanks!
the leafs are currently over the cap but that includes all contracts right now. eventually some of those contracts that are two ways will be off the cap and the ltir eligible guys will open minimum 10 million in cap space and maybe more with dermott and hyman questionable to start the year.
this move was made to buy extra space this summer. the leafs can now go over the cap up to 92 or so million so an offer sheet for marner could be matched without making a few moves to clear space and they could fit a 10 per year contract right now. essentially the leafs picking up this contract means they can go over the cap this summer more than the 10% teams are allowed to.