Man, this defense is beyond garbage

I can tell your knowledge of hockey is at a minimal. Here is the thing rookie. No point for the leafs to go all out on a star defence man especially with the price it is today. Hamilton alone costed Hanfiin and Lindholm. The best way to build a D corps is to start from the farm system. Reilly right now is a 1D. By next season Lijgren will make the lineup and man the kid is phenomenal. Was one of the leading ice time for the Marlies as a rookie this year. Dermott shows he can replace Gardiner and will be better defensivly then he was. Z will bounce back especially once he gains his weight and strength this offseason from his injury and illness last season. Bottom pairing interests me the most. Cole is a great bottom pairing that can help mature Carrick and develop him. Is this D the best in the NHL . Aboslytnty not. But you don't have to have the best D in the NHL when u have a top 3 offensive unit constantly keeping the puck in the offensive end.

Could be possible. Idk if the cap jumps that much. It only jumped 4.5M and that was with an owner paying $500M for a new team. I'm guessing 1-2 based on another low year. Maybe less based on the canadian dollar

So based on that cap space won't work plus why would Carrick sign for less than he makes this year?

Why are you paying Pickard a million when he has resigned for 800K already?!?


Liljegren and Nielsen are not NHL ready yet, will be at minimum at least 1 more year but more like 2.
Holl is more NHL ready then both, but likely needs 1 year more.

Grunstorm is not NHL ready either, same with Timashov.


And what did you do to Hainsey? We are paying him 3 million stilll....
Did you Robidas him????!!!! LOL

With the lockout potentially happening the next season, cap my jump up even further

Lol how is that possible? PA uses their escalator? Players will just end up giving it back in escrow. That's why they don't Max out escalator each year.

I beg to differ, TOR already had a stacked offensive team this past season, and it was their defense that killed them in the playoffs (maybe more specifically Gardiner lol). Even if I'm a Habs fan, I was cheering for the leafs in the first round, and I can safely say TOR will not succeed so long as they don't fix their defense, same as the Habs won't succeed until the have depth at center.

Small example. New York Islanders were the 7th best offensive team in the league last season, they still turned out like poop because of their defense. Only difference between them and TOR (who had the 4th best offense), was that the leafs had great goaltending.
Adding Tavares will make the leafs offense even more lethal for sure, but relying on an inexperienced Dcore is just asking for trouble. Reilly isn't a #1 D, and Liljegren is a tremendous prospect (1st pairing potential for sure) but expecting him to play on the first pairing as a rookie is a terrible idea.

Try reading the post, it's 2019/20. Grundstrom is NHL ready in 2018/19 and certainly the Leafs are hoping Liljegren is ready in 2019/20.

What does the franchise fee have to do with the cap? It's not included into the cap revenue. Will agree you, a declining Canadian dollar would really affect the cap.

Based on this reply and other people's comments, it's you that don't know hockey or your team very well.
Lilijgren is still rusty defensively in the AHL and will not develop into a top pairing in 2 years (and he will make the lineup next year?? you mean a call up right LOLL).
Rielly made a nice jump this year but hasn't proved he's a true 1D yet.
Zaitsev seemed to have lost his confidence, and I don't know why you assumed defensemen will magically bound back or improve themselves.
I know Cole pretty well from Pittsburgh, he's looking for at least a 4*4 contract, otherwise he would have stayed in the Burgh.
If your view on winning a Cup is based on the 2017 Penguins
They actually had a very underrated defense carried by veterans like Daley and Hainsey, while Murray and Fleury both played lights out.
Indeed, you don't need a true first pairing to win a Cup, but the Ds on your team are all bottom pairing on a good team (with Rielly as the exception).

I'll never figure why folks think the Leafs have such poor dman. 103 points, 12th best GAA. Some young guys on the way. I guess the Leafs should pattern themselves after a team like with Flames or Canadians, big budget defence but finish out of the playoffs.
My predictions would be a little different for 2019. Left side looks good with Reilly, Gardiner and Borgman, maybe Rosen too. Right side Zaitsev, Liljegren, and I'm not sure after that, hoping Ozhinokov Still that's pretty solid cost efficient base.
Of course folks get got up with the meaningless number system of numbering Dmen as # 1, 2 etc. Vegas managed to get to the Cup final with a rather average defence, and certainly not one guy that folks would consider a # 1.

I thought part of the franchise fee related to revenue. My bad on that part. But ya unfortunately with trade wars across the board we may see the dollar drop... Hopefully not as my Oilers can use all the space they can get haha

Just a economic/political comment. These tariffs by any/all countries really affect business. Just adds cost and uncertainly to businesses which are passed on to the consumers as are tariffs costs. So paying more for the same products is recessionary and inflationary. The reason a certain country wanted increases tariffs was to increase governments revenues. The budget passed decreased taxes for many, but the government had to make up the revenue and they did by the tariff method. We are going to see increased difficulties for many individuals/countries financially in the future....well that's my rant.

Where is Dermott??

Sorry replace Gardiner with Dermot.