I did a little research and estimated the top 6 salaries from some teams in the NHL in 2019/20.
Leafs with Marner, Matthews, Nylander, Marleau, Reilly and Andersson.....40m
Oilers with McDavid, Draisaitl, Lucic, Sekera, RHN, and Talbot. 43m
Sabres, with Eichel .ROR, Bogo, Moulson, Risto and Okposo. 39m
Bruins. with Bergeron, Krejcki, Marchant, Pasternak, Backes and Rask. 41m
Hawks. with Kane, Toews, Saad, Crawford, Keith and Seabrook. 44m

Off the top of my head, there are many teams in the same position. It seems the league is going "top heavy" with it's signing. Sure it's possible for some teams might, might have to trade a top end player for cap reasons, bu then their will likely be a lot teams in the same boat.

Bless you for making this thread. Many people think Toronto is in serious trouble, but the kids are here to stay.

Thanks Daryl. There is still a danger that let's says Arizona makes an offer on Matthews that Leafs "can't afford". But I look at the offer sheets like this......Lets' say the Leafs allot 10m for Matthews and Arizona offers 13m. The Leafs decide NOT to match. What do the Leafs get? 4 first rounder, PLUS, the 10m they could spend on another UFAs or other players.
But it's funny on this site. When Leafs are bad (or any team) it's because their cap money unwisely (true). But when Leafs are good the Leafs going to trade away their players because they can't afford them.
Leafs seem to operate rules different then the 30 other teams. Seems like the Leafs and Lou are the only bending the rules when players are injured and are LTIR. Leafs never did benefit cap wise from Robadias Island for Robadias because he was a plus 35 signing. But somehow the Leafs cheated the system. Yep players hate playing for the Leafs and Toronto. Marleau, Hainsey, Moore, Zaitsev, Borgman, Aaltoren, Rosen, Martin. Soshnikov, Mcilleeney in the past two years are UFAs. Watch Matthews, Nylander, Marner's, Brown when they play...sure look they are having fun to me. There's my rant for this hour.

I agree. But going back to your RFA comment, offer sheets are rare because what goes around comes around. If ARI offer sheets any of our guys you can bet we'll offer sheet for: Chychrun, or Keller, or Crouse, or Strome, etc. So because of that even with a player as good as Matthews, offer sheets are always asking for trouble.

35+ has no bearing on LTIR, cap hit remains regardless.

Mr Banks: I suggested that if a player is signed as 35+ and goes on LTIR, the team get no cap relief. Is that true?

Your comment.....is kinda confusing. 35+ does have a bearing on cap relief......34 and under signings, do get cap relief. 35+ is a different set of rules, no cap relief (it might be for 925,000) only,

No this is wrong, 35+ has a bearing on buried, bought out and terminated contracts, all contracts work the same for LTIR, because the cap hit is not removed.

https://www.capfriendly.com/ltir-faq

edit/ to further explain:

LTIR allows a team to go above the salary cap, but the player who is on LTIR, their cap hit still remains, it is not a "relief" or "removal" of a cap hit.

Hey palhal, would you be interested in the GM Game?

OK. Daryl. I don't know what it is, so you can lead me.

It's a fun game in which we pretend to be GM's. You'd have to start as a assistant and then work your way up. I'm the MTL GM (I know it's a shame), but I've seen your total posts and you've clearly been here a while, making you an ideal assistant. If you want to work with me, go to the GM Game and contact me on the Montreal Canadiens page. I'd love to have you on my team!