Why the Maple Leafs Didn't Have Success Before The Salary Cap Era

The Toronto Maple Leafs had some issues maneuvering around the NHL salary cap since the league and NHL Players' Association agreed to having one in place at the beginning of the 2005-06 season. And while current management, led by Kyle Dubas addresses some of those issues, they have yet to find success with their current crop of star players.

But what about before Dubas became GM in 2018? Why did Toronto struggle to find much success between 1967 and 2004?

Of course, success is how you define it. Toronto's last playoff series victory came before the salary cap when they defeated the Ottawa Senators in the opening round of the 2004 playoffs. But they haven't won a Stanley Cup or advanced to a Cup final since 1967.

Let's tackle some of what has happened since that time.

Collective bargaining agreement before salary cap

Believe it or not, the NHL did have a salary cap before 2005, but it was set aside for rookies. It was introduced after a new CBA was drafted following a 103-day lockout that resulted in a 48-game season in 1995. The rookie salary cap was set at $850,000 and it escalated all the way to $1.24 million in 2004.

The NHL also set unrestricted free agency at age 32, which was later reduced to 31. This gave a lot of control to teams to keep players' rights for an extended period of time.

The rookie salary cap was a measure by the league to help control costs, but it didn't work out that way. The Maple Leafs used their wealth in an effort to land free-agent players, rather than building out a youthful core.

Landing the big fish

From 1995-2004, the Maple Leafs advanced to conference finals twice. In 1998 they spent a lot of money to land 31-year-old free agent goaltender Curtis Joseph to a four-year, $24.375 million contract. Other additions included 35-year-old Steve Thomas, who went on to have career years with Toronto and was second in team scoring during the 1998-99 season, behind Mats Sundin. 

That campaign marked a big transformation for Toronto. After finishing out of the playoffs for two consecutive seasons. They defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round, before defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in second round. Joseph was a big reason for their success. In the opening round, Toronto scored a total of nine goals over six games to advance. 

Toronto eventually fell to the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference Final. They were carried by the play of another exceptional goaltender at the time, Dominik Hasek.

In the summer of 2001, the Leafs landed another star player. After he had helped his New Jersey Devils eliminate Toronto in back-to-back playoffs, Alexander Mogilny signed a four-year, $22 million contract with his new club.

In the summer of 2002, Toronto managed to replace the departing Joseph with 37-year-old Ed Belfour on a two-year, $13.5 million deal.

Selling the future

The Leafs advanced to the second round in the next two years before once again reaching the conference finals in 2002. Failing again to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, the Leafs began the process of selling their young players for established stars (regardless of age). The Leafs traded draft picks away to re-acquire Doug Gilmour (career ended after first game due to knee injury), Defensemen Glen Wesley and Phil Housley and perhaps the biggest deal of them all, Owen Nolan from the San Jose Sharks.

Toronto gave up forward Brad Boyes, Alyn McCauley and a first-round pick in 2003 that ended up being Mark Stuart. McCauley was Toronto's second leading playoff scorer in 2002 as injuries took their toll on the club. This was the deal that hurt the Leafs most in the years that followed in the salary cap era. Boyes went on to play in 762 NHL games before joining the Leafs for one season in 2015-16. In that time he scored 203 goals and recorded 481 points.

In the spring of 2003, the Leafs were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Flyers.

In preparation for the 2003-04 season, the Leafs continued to sell the future by acquiring veteran defenseman Brian Leetch and 2004 4th-rounder (Roman Kukumberg), in exchange for a 2004 1st-rounder (Kris Chucko), a 2005 2nd-rounder (Michael Sauer), Maxim Kondratiev and Jarkko Immonen. They also acquired Ron Francis.

In addition to all of those moves, the club signed 37-year-old forward Joe Nieuwendyk and also lured Calle Johansson out of retirement and signed him in March of 2004 to play in what ended up being a total of 12 games (eight regular season and four playoffs).

Toronto was eliminated in the second round of the 2004 playoffs at the hands of the Flyers.

The mid-90s

Before the new CBA, Toronto enjoyed a pair of back-to-back appearances to the conference finals. The 1993 team is still regarded as a team that could have won it all had it not been for an incident that occurred in Game 6 of the Clarence Campbell Final when Wayne Gretzky high-sticked Gilmour in overtime and the infraction was missed.

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1967-1992

A very dark period for the Maple Leafs where ownership at the time made some pretty bad decisions. There are too many to list, but they had nothing to do with the payroll or financial viability of the club. 

In 1971, ownership had shifted from a collective group of people to Harold Ballard. As the upstart World Hockey Association began to form, the club elected not to prevent players from defecting by paying them more money. Public episodes between Ballard and players and coaches ensued for the better part of two decades.

In the 70s, Roger Nielson, a beloved coach was fired by Ballard before a plea from the players pushed the club to rehire him.

In 1979, Punch Imlach became general manager of the Maple Leafs and after some petty battles with Darryl Sittler's agent, Alan Eagleson, Imlach went on a vindictive course of dismantling the Maple Leafs. The biggest move saw popular forward Lanny McDonald get moved as part of a package to the Colorado Rockies. 

“To this day, I believe I was traded out of spite," McDonald said in an interview with Leafs historian Kevin Shea.

The Leafs malaise continued into the '80s when Ballard placed inexperienced people in charge of running the team. Ballard passed away in 1990 and things began to change rapidly. Steve Stavro succeeded as chair of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. Cliff Fletcher was named general manager of the Leafs shortly after and began reshaping the franchise.

The structure of the Maple Leafs are such now that they are better equipped to handle the inner workings of the salary cap. Although it hasn't translated into success at the moment, it's too early to make a final determination. Toronto's core-four players of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander still make up just under half of the club's $82.5 million cap. Two of those contracts expire in the next two seasons. Until those seasons are completed, it's too early to make any determination as to how the club has handled today's climate of building a team.

Further Reading

Why the Maple Leafs Don’t Need to Force a Trade to Become Salary Cap Compliant

Calle Jarnkrok’s Contract Signals Return of Maple Leafs’ Pre-Pandemic Salary Cap Strategy

It’s Way Too Early to Worry About Auston Matthews’ Future with the Maple Leafs