That David Nonis is a terrible General Manager is patently obvious to reams of people that have a clue. Of course, it helps him that the reporters that he likely plays source to such as Michael Traikos and Steve Simmons will defend him. One aspect that hadn't received much attention outside of Twitter was how much money the Leafs under Nonis have paid players to not suit up for the Leafs. The Leafs have always had a history of stupid buyouts starting with Darcy Tucker and Colby Armstrong but Nonis has taken it to a new level documented by Elliotte Friedman in this week's 30 Thoughts:

5. The salary cap floor is $51M. Right now, Toronto is committed to spending almost $51.5 million on players who are not in their NHL lineup. They are Nathan Horton ($26 million, won't play again), Mikhail Grabovski $14.3 million (compliance buyout), Tim Gleason $5.3 million (regular buyout), Mike Komisarek $2.3 million (compliance buyout), Colton Orr $925,000 (in AHL), Matt Frattin $800,000 (in AHL), Frazer McLaren $700,000 (in AHL), Troy Bodie $600,000 (in AHL), Carl Gunnarsson $400,000 (retained salary in trade) and Daniel Winnik, approximately $160,000 (retained salary in trade).

Komisarek, Orr, McLaren, Bodie and Winnik come off the books in July. You can't say ownership isn't willing to help.

That is just an astounding figure. The Grabovski buyout which re-anointed Tyler Bozak as the number one centre and came about to satisfy a terrible coach was a mistake. The money wasted on Tim Gleason and Mike Komisarek came about because of a brutal mishandling of the compliance buyouts which I documented here. The money being paid to Nathan Horton is actually a great thing because otherwise that money would go to David Clarkson who was stealing his paycheques. At least there will be some help from LTIR in theory. Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren are terrible at hockey and they should never have been re-signed. Troy Bodie's best characteristic is that he isn't as bad as Orr and McLaren. Matt Frattin was re-acquired by Nonis this summer who talked about recapturing the work ethic and character of the 2013 playoff run and then Frattin never played. Carl Gunnarsson was shipped out for Roman Polak after he finally addressed a hip injury that the Leafs stupidly tried to address using massage instead of surgery. At least the Daniel Winnik salary retention is just for the rest of the season and basically helped buy a draft pick. Otherwise, that's the track record of a GM that should have been fired long ago.

This quick hit by Friedman does so much to highlight the importance of Leafs' management learning from their previous mistakes and highlighting why a potato could be a better GM than Dave Nonis. That figure doesn't even include the money that is still being paid to fired assistant and head coaches and fired dimwits like Claude "I don't understand the salary cap or CBA" Loiselle and Dave "I think Brett Lebda is a good player" Poulin. It also shows that the problem isn't that MLSE isn't willing to spend to win. Rather, the problem is that they hire morons to spend their money.

Fire David Nonis.