Toronto Maple Leafs in trouble with NHL over alleged rule break

Of course, being smart with money is how you make deals and keep talent in the NHL. You want to maximize contract value and term while keeping your talent happy like the Maple Leafs did with Chris Tanev.

The Maple Leafs dared to sign Chris Tanev for longer than four years, and his new contract is a 6-year, $27 Million dollar deal. Which could run until he retires from the NHL.

According to The Hockey News' Jim Parsons, the league has had issues with the later years of Tanev's contract.

Tanev's current cap hit is $4.5 Million, and a 34-year-old will run until retirement for the defenseman at age 40.

Their concern with the deal is Tanev's injury history, and the potential for the Maple Leafs to hide his cap hit in LTIR, should he become seriously injured in the future.

However, this wasn't an issue with the Golden Knights in the past.

He could complete his deal, but according to Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic, the NHL could use Tanev's contract as an example of cap circumvention if he goes on LTIR.

According to the CBA though, the Maple Leafs have done nothing wrong and Bettman and company never stepped in when the Tampa Bay Lightning or Vegas Golden Knights abused this trick.

Anything the Maple Leafs do can be seen as unfairly scrutinized which could be a factor in this "controversy". However, what should be more controversial is how Bettman has handled the Arizona Coyotes, Vegas LTIR situation, and the league's miserable TV deals with ESPN, TNT, and now Amazon.

Bettman used to work for the NBA before arriving to implode the NHL for the owner's benefit and went to law school, he can read the CBA front to back, so this is another tantrum over a loophole he refuses to do anything about.

Source: Maple Leafs Daily
Maple Leafs in hot water with the NHL over an alleged "violation of CBA rules"