Goalie move a stroke of salary-cap genius

In seeing the surgically repaired left wrist of Auston Matthews return to strength and Justin Holl’s illness pass in time for Monday’s game, the Maple Leafs found some relief from the salary-cap issues that ail them.

They had veteran goaltender Michael Hutchinson on the bench to back up Jack Campbell against the New York Rangers, after giving the University of Toronto’s Alex Bishop an unexpected cameo in that position over the weekend.

Hutchinson would have been eligible for a recall under a roster emergency exemption even if Matthews and Holl were forced to miss another game, but the logic of why the Leafs became the first NHL team ever to intentionally play short a professional backup became clearer with those men back healthy.

It actually left coach Sheldon Keefe with more roster flexibility than he is likely to have at any point for the remainder of the season.

That’s because Hutchinson is considered a $0 recall and won’t count against the cap until Petr Mrázek is ready to return from a groin injury in the coming weeks. They’ve essentially added a free player. And with Matthews and Holl healthy, it will allow the Leafs to briefly carry 13 forwards and seven defencemen during a year where they expected to have no more than 19 total skaters on the active roster at any point.

The decision to sign Bishop to an amateur tryout over the weekend was derided by many self-proclaimed salary-cap “experts” on Twitter and provided low-hanging fruit for members of the media, but rival teams are more likely to mimic the approach than ridicule it.

It essentially boiled down to this: The Leafs could have sent a waiver-exempt player such as Timothy Liljegren to the American Hockey League and recalled Hutchinson for Saturday’s game, but it would have forced them to face the Ottawa Senators short a defenceman and they wouldn’t have been permitted to bring Liljegren back to the NHL team using Section 50.10 (e) of the collective bargaining agreement until after Mrázek returned to health.

Instead, management chose to take its medicine by going without a player the Leafs had no intention of using in the game anyway. There was marginal risk, of course, with the possibility Campbell suffered an injury or had an off night, but they weren’t likely to win if either of those situations played out and it was Hutchinson coming off the bench instead of Bishop.

They wound up banking two points and seeing some benefit for taking a creative approach to a common problem.

Now the Leafs are set up more favourably for the stretch of games to come with an extra skater available to Keefe as the team navigates a back-to-back series this weekend and a three-game road trip next week.

While some may not like the optics of having a university student in equipment on an NHL bench, that’s not a concern for any individual team. The Leafs, like several other cap-strapped clubs, are merely trying to use the rules put in place by the league to the best of their advantage.

The Vegas Golden Knights played 18 per cent of their regular-season games short a skater last season because of cap issues and finished tied for the most points in the NHL. That was essentially the cost of signing Alex Pietrangelo to a lucrative free-agent contract before the season and it was a tradeoff Vegas was more than comfortable making.

The Colorado Avalanche entered this season as the prohibitive Stanley Cup favourite and they’ve already played one of their two games short a skater.

The Leafs are operating in the same climate as other top teams that are trying to cram as much talent as possible under an $81.5-million (U.S.) salary-cap ceiling. They’ve turned over large chunks of the bottom half of their group in consecutive years in order to make the puzzle pieces fit

around the Big Four and are vulnerable to stretches where they lose multiple players to short-term injuries and/or illnesses.

But with Bishop remaining on the bench through Saturday’s game, they’ve yet to actually play down a body.

That’s a testament to strong cap management and some good fortune.

As for Matthews, the best sight of this young season had to be how little rust he showed in his first game action since last spring’s playoffs. He sent a noticeable charge through Scotiabank Arena while manoeuvering all over the offensive zone during an early power play against the Rangers, and had 10 shot attempts through 40 minutes.

He handled the puck with confidence and showed off an extra boost with his skating stride.

“He causes lots of problems for every team,” observed Rangers coach Gerard Gallant.

There’s hope the Aug. 13 surgical procedure Matthews had will fix a nagging wrist issue once and for all. That was something he had to manage all through last season even while winning the Rocket Richard Trophy by eight goals over Connor McDavid.

If he can repeat that kind of season again, the Leafs will gladly deal with any ancillary challenges that come with having so much highly paid talent.

Chris Johnston is a Toronto-based journalist with a new gaming company. His work will be seen on the website and app for the new gaming company, and also in the Toronto Star.