Last night’s line brawl between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres will see repercussions come down against players on both teams. One thing Toronto’s front office won’t care for much is how it’ll affect their ability to do business.
The Leafs are looking at losing David Clarkson for 10 games for leaving the bench to fight John Scott. While that was noble of him to do that, his big, new salary cap hit will stay on the record while he sits.
That goes the same way for any player who is suspended as well and as Chris Johnston of Sportsnet shares, both Cody Franson and Mason Raymond may suffer for it.
Franson has been sitting out in a bid to get more money from the team in negotiations and that won’t be happening for the defenceman in the near future. Raymond will have to sign at a bargain price, while adding Franson will be less of a priority with cap space so scarce.
The salary cap aspect of the impending action makes this very awkward for Toronto. Coach Randy Carlyle even recognized this after the game in reference to Clarkson saying he, “made a mistake and now we pay for it.”
That they will and now GM Dave Nonis will have to get really creative through the opening part of the season.
