CONTENDERS or PRETENDERS? (ft. Doughty or Karlsson)

matthews will want more than 10.5. He's a 40 goal scorer his rookie year (and 28 in an injury shortened season, producing goals at a .52 per game rate which is over 40 again on an 82 game scale). Torontos taxes are probably close to the worst in the league, which means less for the individual player. i wouldn't be surprised by a 12m deal for him. 40 goals per year don't come around often. If he gets to RFA a team with cap space (cough arizona) would give up an arm and a leg and sign an offer sheet with that price tag

12 mil for either doughty or karlsson. You are gonna have to retain on Martin. You also might've low-balled everyone outside of the core group of players.

Even those salaries the Leafs are really real close to the cap or may even over it. What happens in the following year if some players coming off their ELC are really good like Liljegren, Dermott and others and might justify big raises.

In terms of are u a contender, maybe (depends on how the kids can fare in the playoffs).
As far as realistic, u’ve underpayed multiple people (Matthews, Karlsson/Doughty, possibly a few others). I’d release JvR and use that extra money to add 1M or 2 to each (and taxes lol).

If the salary cap for the 2019/2020 NHL season does increase to $82 million, There's no way Matthews is signing for $10.5 million per probably the Connor McDavid money of $12.5 million and both Karlsson and Doughty probably get around $12 million per taxes are extremely high in both Toronto and Montreal hence will probably need to give them higher AAV for them to sign there.