Leafs mailbag: We’re counting goals, cap hits and (just for you, Wings fan) championship banners

With Connor McDavid coming to town on his magical run to, possibly, 70 goals and 150 points, it’s worth wondering what has happened to Auston Matthews.

He’s not going to get to 60 goals, like he did last year in winning his second Rocket Richard Trophy, his first Hart and his first Lindsay. He probably won’t get to 50. He might not even lead his team in goals.

He separated himself from the pack last year. He rejoined it this year.

There are a couple of reasons that might explain it. The first: He’s injured. Not severely. He can play through it. He has missed three weeks already. He has had wrist surgery once. He gets cross-checked a lot, so there’s wear and tear.

The other reason: He’s had his Steve Yzerman/Brett Hull moment. He realizes it doesn’t matter how many goals he scores in the regular season. Only the playoffs matter. So learning to play a harder brand of defence matters. And that’s what he’s done. Concentrating on blocked shots, and takeaways, for example, has turned him into a possible Selke candidate (though without killing penalties, it’s an unlikely award for him).

Both can be true, by the way. We’ll see down the stretch if coach Sheldon Keefe manages Matthews’ time (and others) with games off. We won’t really know what if anything ails Matthews until after his playoffs are over. He’s hoping that’s in June.

If you have a question, email me at askkevinmcgran@gmail.com and I’ll answer it in the next Mailbag. Now to this Mailbag, where we get into the nitty gritty of trade details, cap recapture penalties, and we make a visit to Wayne Gretzky’s office. But first, there’s this matter of this guy who likes the Red Wings.

Kevin: The measure of success in competitive sports is winning championships. Only Maple Leafs fans would consider winning a round (or two or three) a success. Red Wings fans, like myself, know that success is measured in rings. Ask Steve Yzerman, he’s got a bunch and looking to add a few more in the near future.

The Leafs are a joke; always have been, always will be. But keep wasting ink on them with your Stanley Cup pipe dreams. And what do you get if the Leafs win the Cup? Well, I’d say that’s a sure sign of the apocalypse … lol.You can hitch a ride with me to the parade in Motown in a few years and see the Cup go through downtown Detroit, again.

Trevor L.

I believe the overall score is Toronto 13, Detroit 11.

I have a few different, maybe unusual, questions: In a trade, which team pays for the airline ticket for the player to move to the new team? Which team faxes the NHL with the transaction? When a player is placed on injured reserve, does the team need to submit proof to the NHL? And does a blocked shot have to be a shot on net?

Bobcaygeon Larry

The acquiring team pretty much pays for everything, from the airline ticket to the hotel to the rental car. If the trade is before Feb. 15, the expenses last 21 days. If the trade is after Feb. 15, the team is on the hook for the remainder of the season. Both teams have to call the league with the trade details. If a player is on injured reserve, the team needs to have proof of injury if the league asks. The league doesn’t usually ask. A blocked shot is only a blocked shot if the official scorer deems the shot was headed for the net, so there’s a subjectivity to it. Hits are only hits if possession changes. So if a player takes a hit but makes the pass, it’s not really a hit, statistically speaking.

A couple of questions: Wayne Gretzky operated from his office behind the net with great success. Why do you think no one has copied that approach? Or, if someone has, why didn’t it work? I’m surprised no player, standing behind the net, hasn’t tried to flip the puck over the net hitting the goalie in the back of their head or creating a rebound. Just something extra for the goalie to think about. Thoughts?

Peter Y., Thornhill

Amen, brother, on the Gretzky thing. It puzzles me still why more players don’t try. Mitch Marner, Connor McDavid, Jack Hughes, Trevor Zegras, probably more, could confuse and confound defencemen. I cover the world juniors regularly and a Swiss team did just that, drawing both defenders away from the “box” and creating chaos. I’d love to see it more.

As for the over-the-net thing, I do believe I’ve seen it (Sidney Crosby, Vincent Trochek), but what player has time these days? They’re usually being crunched at 5-on-5 anyway. And as we’ve discussed, they don’t stand there on the power play.

The salary cap hampered trades for so long. What happened to allow so many trades this year? And did Brian Burke start a trend where his style is to trade well before the deadline to make more stress-free, smarter trades?

Peter Y.

I never bought the argument that the salary cap hampered trades. GMs have always found ways to make trades. Burke’s idea of salary retention — in place since 2013 — was a good one. Every year GMs, scouts, media and fans who hate the salary cap for a variety of reasons blame it for lack of trades. But trades, it turns out, are never lacking.

The Maple Leafs can’t beat the worst teams in the league. They have demonstrated that throughout this season and again in Vancouver last weekend. This is not just because of a bunch of new guys on the roster. Their core five were a combined minus-13 versus the Canucks. Yes, they were tired. Yea, it’s one game. But they keep doing it to the point of predictability. Wouldn’t the ability and will to dispatch the worst in the league demonstrate a rejection of past failures and a readiness to change the narrative in the upcoming playoffs?

Andrew D., Etobicoke

Yeah, I can’t believe over the last 15 games, they lost to Arizona and Buffalo, and twice to Florida — all teams that are not in playoff spots. Oh wait, that was the other blue and white team, Tampa Bay. But there were those losses in the last eight games to Ottawa, Detroit, Washington and Calgary. Oh, sorry, that was another Original Six team, the New York Rangers.

I think you get my point. The Leafs are fine. They are 21-9-4 against teams currently not in a playoff spot. They’re 18-8-4 against teams that are. The record against playoff teams is probably more important.

When Roberto Luongo retired as a member of the Florida Panthers, he had a couple of years left on his contract. I recall that his retirement decision impacted the Vancouver Canucks, who took a cap hit. Can you explain why?

Greg M.-W., Kemptville, Ont.

The answer is a cap recapture penalty. Players were signing really long contracts with most of the money paid up front and getting paid close to NHL minimum at the end of the deal. It was a way to make the cap hit smaller. The players didn’t mind because they probably weren’t going to play those years. The league thought that smelled like cap circumvention and eventually outlawed contracts longer than eight years.

It also retroactively introduced a cap recapture penalty. Luongo signed a 12-year, $64-million (U.S.) deal in 2010, giving his team a cap hit of $5.33 million. He only played until 2018-19, by which time he had been paid nearly $60 million The cap hit of the remaining three years was divided between the two teams that benefited from his lower-than-actual cap hit. Vancouver absorbed $3,035,212, the Panthers $1,092,122, according to capfriendly.com.

Other players also signed deals like that, notably Shea Weber. He signed a 14-year, $110-million deal that works out to a cap hit of $7.85 million. He was paid $14 million in each of the first four years of his deal, and it will be down to $1 million in the final three years. It expires in 2025-26. He hasn’t played in two seasons and won’t come back. That’s not cap circumvention, says the league, because the now 37-year-old is too injured to play.

Why Luongo didn’t get “injured” is anyone’s guess.

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