Connor Brown is in no man’s land, contract-wise.

The Maple Leafs want to re-sign their restricted free agent, but are unable to do so without going over the NHL’s summertime salary cap.

The Maple Leafs cannot match an offer sheet of more than $1.15 million, meaning they are at risk of losing Brown, a 20-goal scorer and one of their impressive rookies from last season.

That’s why trade rumours are swirling around the team. Teams know the Leafs are seeking relief from their salary-cap bind, and are targeting some of their veterans. Tyler Bozak’s name has been linked to the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello declined an interview request.

The good news for the Leafs is that Brown is patient and wants to remain with the team. He is not interested in signing an offer sheet and appears ready to wait out the Leafs’ cap crunch.

The situation began when the Leafs signed Patrick Marleau to a cap hit of $6.25 million. The first casualty was prospect forward Dominic Toninato, who will become a free agent on Aug. 15. Marleau took the last available NHL contract roster spot. But it also created the summertime salary cap issue, as exposed by capfriendly.com.

In the summer, teams can exceed the cap by 10 per cent, meaning they can carry contracts worth $82.5 million.

This however includes all one-way NHL contracts, even for players who could otherwise be buried in the minors. Buyouts, retained salaries and performance bonus overages all count. There are no long-term injured reserve lists in the summer, meaning the contracts of Joffrey Lupul and Nathan Horton are part of the Leafs’ summer cap. And players on two-way contracts have parts of their contract count, based on the number of days they spent in the NHL last year.

The upshot: the Leafs have $421,602 in summer cap space. That includes $715,000 set aside for Brown based on the qualifying offer issued by the Leafs. In theory, the Leafs could sign Brown to a deal worth $1,136,602 annually and stay under the cap. But Brown is worth more than that, probably much more than the $2.25 million cap hit signed by Zach Hyman. Probably closer to $3 million a year.

“If the offer sheet was for an amount greater than $1.15 million, then they would not have the off-season cap space to match,” Dominik Zier, the mastermind behind capfriendly.com, said in an email.

If both sides are patient, the Leafs can sign Brown on the first day of the season, which would be the day they could assign players to the Marlies and put players on injured reserve, creating the cap space needed.

It’s clear, with 19 NHL forwards under contract, the Leafs would be exploring the trade market even if they weren’t in a cap bind. Coach Mike Babcock said just that last week. And the Leafs are primarily interested in a right-handed defenceman.

As for the rumours, sources have told the Star the Leafs are not interested in what the Rangers have offered for Bozak, which according to the New York Post is defenceman Nick Holden, who carries a cap hit of $1.65 million, compared to Bozak’s $4.2 million.

The Penguins are also said to be interested in re-uniting Bozak with Phil Kessel and might be tempted to offer up defenceman Olli Maatta, a former London Knight and a favourite of assistant GM Mark Hunter. Maatta’s cap hit of $4,083,333 would not offer the Leafs much extra room for Brown.

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The Ducks were more interested in Brown rather than Bozak, at least before the expansion draft. There was talk of a Brown for Sami Vatanen deal that died when the Ducks were able to keep their coveted defencemen away from the Golden Knights. Again, with a cap hit of $4.875 million, the Leafs could not afford to take Vatanen in the summer any more than they could sign Brown.

The biggest rumour making the rounds in the summer is one that would see Drew Doughty become a Leaf. The Kings all-star blueliner gave legs to that one himself, musing in an interview he’d like to play for the Leafs one day. If the Kings were truly interested, the price tag would be much higher than Bozak and Brown.

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