Dubas: Leafs would prefer to add players with term over rentals

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas is fielding plenty of questions about offer sheets and contract extensions of late, so naturally, trades are the next topic of discussion.

With Auston Matthews' and Mitch Marner's contract negotiations looming, the future deals for the young stars apparently tie into the Leafs' trade deadline plans, as Dubas said he'd like some term security attached to anyone he might add.

"... If we have some certainty or some relative certainty about where the contracts for Auston and Mitch are going to come in, and we have more certainty at that time for where the salary cap will be for next season, we may be able to add players that are more than just rentals, that do have some term, whether it's one, two, or however many years left on their contracts," Dubas told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic on Monday.

"I think all those pieces kind of have to fit together. I don't really look and see many pure rentals that really change the dynamic of our group. So anything that we'd be looking at would be players that probably have some term."

The Maple Leafs have $5.8 million in available cap space for the remainder of the current season, per Cap Friendly. With next year's limit set to increase to roughly $83 million, Toronto is projected to have just over $23 million at its disposal heading into 2019-20.