If that was a trade Montreal could make, It would have already been made. Alzner has one of the worst contracts in the league, he's not going to go the cheap unfortunately. Karlsson is going to get atleast 11m+ if he goes to FA

If Karlsson hits FA, I don't see him joining a former team rival like the Leafs or Habs.

Karlsson would command more than that, whether he hits the open market or not. And I'm pretty sure that SJ will do everything they can to re-sign him.

At 11M, he still fits under the Habs cap.


As mentioned above, at 11M/yr & 7 years, he'd have 77M reasons to play for a rival.

And put us in cap hell. We simply can't afford him. Domi is going to take the remaining cap space available the season after. Having 2 players above 10 million dollars is not healthy and you cannot win a cup like that.

Missing about 2M/yr on the AAV to even entertain a dialogue with Karlsson.

having players over 10 million on your team is not a bad thing if they are old and not the best then it is a bad thing.

No, having players over 10 million means you are going to be in cap hell. It's not a sustainable system. Teams that win the cup don't have those anchor contracts. I don't believe a team has won a cup with two players making over 10 million. Teams that win the cup instead spend their cap on depth rather than top end talent. That's how you win.

not at all. the way the nhl is going is star players making money and the rest of them should be young and cheap. like the leafs, JT signed for 11 million and is superstar, instead of JT the leafs could have signed komarov, bozak and van remesdyke for 14 million dollars. with those 2 extra roster spots and 2 million dollars the leafs were able to give spots to johnsson and kapanen who will probably have 40 points each and in total the 3 will outscore JVR, Bozak and Leo by 50 points. chicago is in cap hell because they gave big contracts to older guys like saad who could be replaced by players n their ELC's. they replaced saad making 6 million with panarin making under 1 million and it turned out well. The new england patriots are so good because they find cheap guys to do one thing that they are good at and they succeed at doing that one thing because it is easier to find players who make under a million and are good then it is to find players like john tavares or auston matthews.

Krug, Edler, Murray, McCabe, or Chychrun maybe?

Just looking at who's producing this year at the position, and trying to guess who might be remotely available?

http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?report=skaterscoring&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20182019&seasonTo=20182019&gameType=2&leftyOrRighty=L&position=D&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,20&sort=pointsPer60Minutes

Toronto is only doing good because their current superstars are on their ELCs. Lets watch and see next year just how good they are when they have to trade away all of their depth because they are playing 30+ Million for 3 players. Johnsson and Kapanen are also on ELC's and if they want to get paid, they will not be with Toronto anymore. Toronto will become depleted just like Chicago and Edmonton

The leafs have good young players and some solid prospects who will be able to come up and play almost as good as kapanen or johnsson. Edmonton and Chicago are bad because they have huge contracts to bad players and gave up their young cheap players for one year rentals. Edmonton is paying 14 million for russell, lucic and spooner and Chicago paid a **** ton to bickel, saad and Seabrook who arent even close to as good to john Tavares, Ennis and dermott. Chicago and Edmonton are paying lots of money for bad players where the leafs are paying lots for good players