Insider claims Leafs have 3rd party teams ready to jump in to retain salary in a deadline deal

Just three short weeks away from the trade deadline, the clock is ticking for teams to declare themselves as buyers, sellers or neutral parties.

The sellers should be obvious, as should a lot of the major buyers, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have been linked to pretty much every player that has been mentioned in a trade rumour this season.

One interesting detail to note about the Leafs comes from TSN's Frank Seravalli, who has confirmed that Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has had some preliminary discussions with teams who could, in exchange for an asset or two, come into a deal along with the Leafs (if they decide to target a higher-salaried player) to retain some money on the player, to keep the Buds under the salary cap.

"I mentioned earlier last week. Toronto has already engaged third party teams to try and broker a deal cap space wise if they need to so that they could go after a player with a higher cap hit if that was what they desire," said Seravalli on TSN1260 on Monday.

Such a deal was actually facilitated last season when Leafs GM Kyle Dubas took on some of Robin Lehner's salary in the deal that sent Lehner from Chicago to Vegas, to help keep the Golden Knights cap compliant, earning mid-round pick for their troubles.

Of course, there's no guarantee that the Leafs will go this route, but it's definitely an interesting way for Dubas to make some significant deadline additions to try and win now, at the expense of some lower-end assets.

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