Big offseason contracts could mean big trouble for the Maple Leafs.

It has been a relatively quiet offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but in spite of the fact that there has been relatively little movement on their end this offseason could prove to be one that will have a long term impact on the franchises roster.

The reality is that although the Leafs have not been handing out any big time contracts, plenty of teams around the league have been doing exactly that. Over the last few months alone we have seen several defensemen cash some very big checks, defensemen like Dougie Hamilton, Seth Jones, Zach Werenski and even Cale Makar. Every single one of those players will carry a cap hit of over $9 million per season on their new deals, and there's little doubt that the agents representing Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly have been licking their chops for their chance to cash in on those big dollars.

Recently, National Hockey League insider Chris Johnston hinted at the fact that these new deals could severely complicate matters for the Leafs when it comes to re-signing Rielly to a new deal. In fact, according to Johnston there have been very few discussions between the Leafs and Rielly's representatives as a result of the current market for defensemen in the NHL.

From Johnston:

That explains in part why there’ve only been a couple of surface-level conversations between Rielly’s camp and Leafs management to this point. The CBA has permitted them to sign a deal that would take effect in July 2022 for more than six weeks now, and during that period the marketplace has evolved.

Earlier this week Maple Leafs general manager was a guest on Bob McCown's podcast, and although he did not mention Rielly by name he did go out of his way to point out that contending teams are very likely to lose players, specifically pending unrestricted free agents, in the flat cap era of the NHL.

"I think you're going to see more and more of that," said Dubas. "You can't just extend the players and hope you can figure out the cap stuff later, the cap isn't gonna go anywhere. You're gonna see a lot more guys playing out their UFA seasons."

Leaf fans will know that all too well having lost forward Zach Hyman to free agency this offseason, and based on what Dubas is saying here it could very well be that Morgan Rielly will be next on that list.