What happens if the salary cap does not increase or only goes up 5 million, The Leafs are screwed with that contract
It will barely go up next year.
That being said this was the right move to do IMO. It’s a lot of money because the market on good D is out of control.
The Leafs had 3 options. We can all agree on that.
1) Let him expire
2) Trade him at or before the deadline.
3) Extend him.
Let’s clear #2 as an option. Toronto is still very likely a playoff team despite their early struggles. They are not going to sink their season.
As for #1) if he hits the market he will be hard to sign, and even if you do sign him then you likely have to do a trade to make room. It’s difficult to sign a player and then concurrently try to trade someone big to make cap space.
So this is why #3 makes sense. You have taken out the difficulty of trying to do two things at once.
It seems very unlikely Toronto will be able to pay all their current top 4 forwards and top 3 D. If they did their rest of lineup will be a mess.
So now you deal one of those bigger contracts to clear some space in the off-season and push the decision back one season.