Maple Leafs set up for big changes soon — if they want them

As a team that’s perpetually butting its head against the salary cap ceiling, you’d think that the Maple Leafs look doomed to that fate forever.

Often, that’s the outlook of many teams who spend big and take large risks to contend. If the current plan fails and the GM gets booted, the next person usually isn’t just looking to improve the team. They usually have to clean up big messes. (See: Mike Grier being left to clean up the Sharks.)

Yet, the scary thing about the Maple Leafs could also feel liberating.

If things don’t work out in this era of the Maple Leafs, they’re structured for big changes. It’s a thought that’s hovered here and there. Credit to Cap Friendly for tweeting it out in a way that really hammers home the point in a visual manner:

The #LeafsForever only have 4 roster players signed past the next two seasons.

Rielly & Järnkrok are the only 2 players that are signed past the 2024-25 season. Tavares & Marner are signed until the end of the 2024-25 season.

All other contracts expire by the end of 2023-24. pic.twitter.com/4eeksxm8hb

— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) July 15, 2022

Over the years, rival fans have tormented Maple Leafs fans about Auston Matthews leaving town, possibly for the Arizona Coyotes. Sometimes Maple Leafs fans themselves have wallowed in that grim scenario, or other similar ones.

Matthews, 24, didn’t just sign a contract that carried a hefty (but actually still very team-friendly) $11.64M cap hit in 2019. It also only kept him under contract for mid-range term. In a league where star players almost always sign for seven or eight years, Matthews merely inked a five-year contract.

Similarly, Mitch Marner and (excessive trade rumor magnet) William Nylander signed six-year contracts with the