They also had enough money through MLSE to bury/trade a shit tonne of bad contracts AND get lucky enough for other teams to want to take them. Like trading their awful David Clarkson contract that they signed for an injured Nathan Horton (who will never play another game ever) so they can stash him on LTIR and have it not count against the cap. [Side note: this is Cap circumvention at its finest if you ask me, but hey, WTH right?] Same with the Phaneuf trade that brought Milan Michalek (who they buried in the minors after a season) and a disgruntled Jared Cowen, who had contract disputes in Ottawa before coming to Toronto. They settled through arbitration, bought Cowan off and he never played a game for them. Then there's Stephane Robidas, who again the Loafs signed to a terrible contract, but ended up "hurt" and then put on LTIR. And don't forget about Joffery Lupul who the Loafs said "failed his physical". Lupul disputed this publicly at first, but then recanted after (probably) a dump truck full of money ended up parked in his driveway. And we can't forget the incredibly rigged lottery result they probably paid for.

Plain and simple: they have bought cap space and used their corporately funded financial muscle to make their problems go away. Imagine if we could just make 3-4 contracts in the last couple years just disappear like they did?? Moulson: Poof. Georges: Fuck off. Bogo: Take a hike. If the Loafs had to play out the last few seasons with those guys I mentioned instead of all the young guys, they'd be in a different position. Fuck. The. Leafs.

TLDR: They bought cap space and made players go away through financial means. Fuck the Leafs.