The Toronto Maple Leafs have several roster decisions to finalize before the regular season, but it seems they’ve already made up their minds on two forwards.
Last week, Frank Seravalli reported that the Leafs were expected to sign both players on professional tryouts (PTOs) once their injury situation was clearer. On Friday’s episode of “32 Thoughts,” Elliotte Friedman confirmed that the Leafs plan to sign both players, doing their best to stretch the salary cap as far as possible.
“I think you’ll see Toronto sign Pacioretty and Lorentz, but the cap space will be razor-thin, leaving them with about 36 cents under the cap. They played Lorentz at center on Thursday, and I’m still curious how this will work once everyone’s healthy, but I think they’ll sign both of them.”
When Pacioretty signed his PTO, his agent suggested a deal was essentially in place, but there was no such certainty for Lorentz. By signing both, Friedman noted the Leafs could start the season with Connor Dewar and Jani Hakanpaa on long-term injured reserve (LTIR), depending on how their recovery progresses over the next few days.
Placing both players on LTIR would free up over $2.5 million in cap space, allowing the Leafs to keep the roster intact while buying them more time to make decisions—unlike last year, when Brad Treliving traded Sam Lafferty to retain Fraser Minten under similar cap constraints.
With one preseason game left, it will be interesting to see how many regulars feature in the lineup versus how many “bubble” players are still competing for spots.
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