Sportsnet: Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on this their tight salary cap situation is going to need them to be creative ahead of the NHL trade deadline.
** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
“The cap situation not only for us, if you look at it for two-thirds of the teams in the league is very tight. So, very, very fortunate here to have Brandon Pridham on the staff and he and I talk for hours a day of different things that we can do, and will do, and are attempting to accomplish as we go through it.
I just think we’re going to have to be creative, and we’re going to have to find ways anyway we can to improve the team now and in the future knowing that the salary cap is going to be stagnant. Not only now in this season Chris, but also in future years here.
So, I think that’s where Brandon’s value is even more immense than usual at time’s like this because he not only has a great understanding of our situation but of other situations, and can come up with different ideas and we can bounce things off one another before we go to other clubs in the market place and try to find a way to improve the team with limited cap space.”
Dubas when asked if putting Jimmy Vesey on waivers was cap related move or if there was something else to it.
“I think, couple things there because what happened at the beginning of the year, we had put a bunch of guys who comprised of our fourth line, third line on waivers or sent them down. That allowed what I thought at the beginning of the year was a really good competition. Even when guys were producing, whether it was Adam Brooks or Petan or Travis Boyd, Joey Anderson, Vesey, Spezza, the different players who played in those roles. They were still coming in and out of the lineup. I thought that competition really fueled great performance from those players.
Really when Campbell came off long-term injured reserve and back on the roster but now has sort of been day-to-day here since the game in Edmonton. It’s sort of limited to what we can do in terms of plays coming on and off, especially because we don’t have much waiver flexibility with those guys on the lower end of our roster. They’ve gone past that 10 game threshold long ago.
And so one of the things we were looking to do to increase our flexibility on roster but also as Campbell gets closer to return and Simmonds gets closer to return, we do have to do some juggling with the cap situation.”
