May have my own answer!!
........ worth noting that the Leafs already have more than the 10% ?bonus? cap space already tied up. With a $74 million upper limit estimated for the 2016-17 NHL season, the extra space available in the summer would be $7.4M. Nathan Horton and Stephane Robidas have $8.3M in combined cap hits, which means that, even after accounting for the 10% summer overage, the Leafs have $900,000 less cap room to work with.
If you add more players to that total, like Joffrey Lupul and his $5.25M cap hit, the available room becomes even smaller. Because teams can?t replace players on LTIR until the regular season starts, they can?t add salary past the 10% summer overage, meaning that there isn?t any benefit in the summer to the possibility that Joffrey Lupul may wind up on injured reserve a few months later.
Let?s say that the Leafs intend to have Robidas, Horton, and Lupul on LTIR. After accounting for the 10% summer overage, the team would have $6.15M less than the upper limit available to spend. Assuming a $74M upper limit, meaning their actual available space would be $67.85M, not $74M (and even less than that once you account for the Tim Gleason buyout and retained salary on Phil Kessel).
