Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington said:
Bill_Berg_is_pissed_off said:
What does that do to the ask though (genuine question as someone with much less knowledge than most on here)
It's worth noting that there are ways to soften the blow of Klingberg's contract. For starters $2mil of his $4.15mil AAV has already been paid out in the form of a signing bonus. That leaves a $2.15mil salary (and of course some of that has already been paid as the seasons gone on).
Next, the Leafs could do Calgary some favours by taking on a contract or two that they might not want.
They currently have 2 guys on LTIR: Oliver Kylington and Kevin Rooney. Kylington has a $2.5mil AAV deal that expires after this season. He missed the entire 22/23 season due to personal reasons, and while it appeared like he was going to attempt a return this season it hasn't happened yet and he ended up back on LTIR. If he's going to stay there the entire season again, which feels likely, the Leafs could take his contract since they'll be in LTIR all season anyway. Since he's not physically injured I would imagine insurance isn't paying for any of his salary, so that'll be a nice chunk of money off of Calgary's books.
Rooney has a $1.3mil AAV deal that also expires this summer. I actually mentioned him before in a different context but he's a failed Treliving signing from his last offseason in Calgary and was probably destined for the AHL before he was injured in training camp. He won't be spending the entire season on LTIR but the Leafs could bury him in the AHL for a small cap hit and eat his salary.
The Leafs can also retain a little on Klingberg's deal depending on how much cap space they have left.
So that leaves a trade that looks something like:
Zadorov for Abruzzese and a 3rd. Value wise again I think that makes sense.
Kylington and Rooney for Klingberg with 12% retention (a $500k cap hit for the Leafs). This gets $3.8mil off of Calgary's books while taking Klingberg's $2.15mil salary minus 12% (all less of course when pro-rated). Klingberg's AAV would go down to $3.65mil, just a shade under Zadorov's meaning Calgary wouldn't need any additional moves to make things fit on their end.
With Kylington on LTIR, Rooney to the AHL once he's healthy ($150k cap hit), and Reaves also to the AHL ($200k cap hit), it leaves a healthy 21-man roster (which might not happen for awhile until Lily returns) looking like this with roughly $10k in cap space to spare.:
Knies-Matthews-Marner
Bertuzzi-Tavares-Nylander
Domi-Robertson-Jarnkrok
Gregor-Kampf-McMann
Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Liljegren
Zadorov-Giordano/Timmins
Woll
Samsonov
Reaves could stay up to continue collecting his NHL paycheque while in the pressbox for as long as Liljegren is hurt at least.
