The Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets eventually got their blockbuster deal across the finish line Monday, but it apparently took some extra work because of a little-known NHL rule.
Toronto acquired Kirill Marchenko, Elvis Merzlikins and Miles Wood from Columbus in exchange for Matthew Knies, Emil Andrae, Steven Lorentz and a 2027 second-round pick. The Blue Jackets also retained 18 percent of Merzlikins’ salary. Marchenko then signed a six-year, $75 million extension with the Maple Leafs.
But the trade was delayed as the teams worked through the complicated salary-cap math.
According to Elliotte Friedman, the issue was the NHL’s “tagging rules.”
“Essentially, you can’t have more salary committed for future seasons than the cap allows, so Toronto was not allowed to extend the winger without clearing space beyond this year,” Friedman explained.
He also suggested that this is likely why Andrae was included in the deal, noting that the defenseman had $1.55 million owed to him in 2027-28.
That is an important distinction.
The Maple Leafs weren’t simply trying to squeeze enough room under this season’s salary cap. They needed to make sure the Marchenko extension worked within the league’s rules beyond the current campaign.
And that helps explain why Andrae suddenly became part of a trade that was already complicated enough.
Emil Andrae Essentially Became a Maple Leafs Cap Casualty
Andrae’s inclusion is a little strange on the surface.
The Maple Leafs had only acquired the 24-year-old defenseman from Philadelphia in June, giving up goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit in the process. Toronto then signed him to a two-year contract in July.
He never even played a regular-season game for the organization.
Now he is a Blue Jacket.
The reason appears to be less about what Andrae could do for the Maple Leafs this season and more about what his contract represented in future seasons. Friedman specifically pointed to the $1.55 million Andrae is owed in 2027-28 as part of the salary commitments Toronto had to account for while constructing Marchenko’s massive extension.
That makes Andrae something of a cap casualty.
It also helps that Toronto had already made another move that reduced the urgency to keep him around.
The Maple Leafs signed Nick Blankenburg to a one-year, $1.4 million contract earlier this month, giving them another right-shot defenseman capable of providing depth. That made Andrae somewhat more expendable, particularly if the organization viewed him as competing for a depth role rather than a guaranteed spot in the lineup.
It is still a strange way for Andrae’s brief Toronto tenure to end.
But this is what happens when a team tries to add a $12.5 million player.
Sometimes the biggest trade comes with smaller roster casualties that have little to do with the actual player being acquired.
Toronto Got the Deal Done Just in Time
The good news for Toronto is that all of this maneuvering happened before the most important deadline of all.
The NHL required teams to submit their opening-night cap-compliant rosters by 5 p.m. ET Monday, which created an extremely tight window for the Maple Leafs and Blue Jackets to finalize everything.
They made it.
And that means Marchenko can be part of the Maple Leafs lineup when Toronto opens the regular season Tuesday.
That is a pretty remarkable turnaround considering how complicated the negotiations became.
Toronto didn’t simply acquire Marchenko. It had to work out the trade, absorb Merzlikins and Wood, move out Knies, Andrae and Lorentz, account for Columbus retaining part of Merzlikins’ salary and then negotiate a six-year extension worth $12.5 million annually for Marchenko.
All of that had to fit under the league’s rules.
Marchenko is coming off a 27-goal, 67-point season and enters Toronto at 26 years old, so the Maple Leafs clearly aren’t viewing this as a short-term rental.
They made a massive commitment to him.
And after all the late-night cap gymnastics, they also managed to make sure their newest star could actually suit up on Opening Night.
For the Maple Leafs, that is probably the most important part of the whole saga.
Maple Leafs Marchenko Trade Delayed by Little-Known NHL Rule