Plan B - OReilly instead of Domi and Hanifin

Équipe: 2023-24 Maple Leafs de Toronto

Date de création initiale: 20 juin 2023

Publié: 23 juin 2023

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

This is the companion piece to contemporaneous post signing Max Domi as a free agent and acquiring Noah Hanifin via trade. The cap hits of those two players almost certainly rules out re-signing Ryan O'Reilly. This is my idea of what the alternative would look like.

The basic theory here is that a 13-forward, 8-defenseman roster is not merely workable but advisable in light of the veteran defensemen who might benefit from the occasional night off, particularly on back-to-backs. The waivers-exempt status of 7 forwards on the non-roster (not including the recovering Rodion Amirov) makes this approach feasible, in my view.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that I have a hole at #2 LhD here. Several approaches to address this issue occur to me. In no particular order of preference:

1. Sign free agent Niko Mikkola. He should probably be available at or below the $2.5 million mark. He averaged almost 17 and a half minutes per game last season and at 27, he could be a good eventual replacement for Mark Giordano.

2. Trade for Brendan Dillon (50% retained). This would obviously be a stopgap measure (Dillon is a rental) and it's not clear to me whether he'd be an upgrade on Jake McCabe.

3. Trade for Sam Girard (50% retained). This seems unlikely in that it would entail trading away either the Boston first or the 2024 first plus a good prospect, so I include it here just for completeness.

4. Trade for Oliver Kylington. Again, this seems unlikely because the Flames are probably going to trade Noah Hanifin, leaving them with just Nikita Zadorov on that side, and then there's the issue of Kylington's injury history.

5. Sign a lesser-value free agent like Calvin De Haan or Erik Gustafsson. This would leave Toronto with quite a bit more cap space, but would mean McCabe would be the #2 LhD.

6. Do nothing. Use the cap space on a 14th forward, possibly even upgrading the fourth line.