When Caufield signed he said something along the lines of wanting to be paid less then Suzuki as a sign of respect. I could see Slaf right now would doing the same, however if he explodes next season and say gets 90+ points then I don't think you can count on that.
But honestly if by waiting Slaf ends up being with a cap hit of a few million more not sure anyone should care, getting a player worth paying more then Suzuki is a huge win and paying your stars is never the issue (Even Toronto's issue is that mispend on D, Brodie and Muzzin at 5m each, the near 7m they used to spend on Giordano, etc...).