Toronto Maple Leafs could be planning to use LTIR loophole to get out of another bad contract
When Free Agency began for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving had only been on the job for about a month. It was clear that Treliving knew he needed to rebuild the team in a very significant way. Unfortunately time and money were both limitations for him and he was forced to settle in fixing the forwards instead of the defense.
In his history Treliving has always valued big physical defenders who can move the puck. Unfortunately in free agency there weren't many available options and the Leafs settled on signing John Klingberg to a one-year deal. The Klingberg experiment so far has been a disaster for the Leafs, with Klingberg being exploited defensively almost nightly, he has already found his way into the press box.
Earlier this week Sheldon Keefe mentioned that Klingberg has been battling through some sort of injury. Keefe also flagged that the long flight to Sweden didn't help the injury. Today Klingberg spoke on the injury for the first time:
The revelation that this injury has been a chronic issue might just be a blessing for the Maple Leafs. Instead of needing to clear cap space, the Leafs could simply put Klingberg on long-term injured reserve to clear his cap hit. That facts was not lost on fans.
Only time will tell what will happen, but this once again seems fishy for the Leafs.
| POLL | ||
Do you think the Maple Leafs abuse LTIR? | ||
| Every team does | 48 | 47.5 % |
| Yes, they do | 24 | 23.8 % |
| No, injuries are part of the game | 18 | 17.8 % |
| Get rid of the salary cap | 11 | 10.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
