Report: Why The Maple Leafs Didn't Wait To Sign Kirill Marchenko Extension To Improve Tagging Room

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a pickle when it comes to their salary cap space, specifically, tagging room.

They have a projected $1.6 million in salary cap space, and just $647,618 in tagging room, according to PuckPedia. The basis of that means the Maple Leafs can't call up any players with a contract beyond this year because that would go over the $647,618 of tagging room.

A large part of that comes from the contract extension the Leafs and right winger Kirill Marchenko signed when he was acquired in that trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Toronto GM John Chayka inked the Russian to a six-year deal worth $12.5 million per season. But if the front office had waited to register that contract until closer to July 1, it wouldn't have affected the salary cap for next season, ultimately giving the team more flexibility in who they could recall from the AHL and if they wanted to make further additions to the lineup.

So why did the Maple Leafs give Marchenko that contract if they could have benefited from waiting for a little while? On Thursday's episode of Sportsnet's 32 Thoughts podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman explained why.

"I did ask at one point if they could have waited to sign the contract later," Friedman said. "Basically, the answer I got was that not everybody was comfortable with it."

Technically, Toronto could've had the logistics of a contract extension in place, but not make it official with the league. Obviously, that's not how it played out.

"I just heard in this particular situation that was there any thought about doing that? And I just heard there was an overall lack of comfort with that idea," Friedman added. "They could have done it."

There are two sides of the story. If the Maple Leafs didn't give Marchenko that contract extension, there would be concerns about his future with the team. Not to mention the questions that would come with the package that Toronto sent to Columbus for a player who wouldn't be locked in beyond this season.

If the Maple Leafs had waited before registering that contract with the league, they would have $4.75 million in tagging room - which is the difference between Matthew Knies and Marchenko's salary cap hits. That would allow them to call up players such as defenseman Ben Danford and other players in the Marlies who still have multiple years remaining on their contracts. Not to mention, it would give the organization much more flexibility.

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