im a habs fan, and a lot of fans on this site know me, but in all honesty, leafs have this 3 year window to win a cup. evne if marner gets 11, u have 4 key pieces locked up for at least the next 3 years, until andersen and rielly need new contracts. pay up and go for it. i mean u traded a 1st rd pick for a dman. kinda means ur all in

A second seems hefty.

Finally some sense. Kapanen gets 4,750,000. Nylander and Kapanen have to go.

Why do they have to go?

He has really been heating up lately after getting time on the 3rd line. A great pker and can play in the top 6. If Boyle can get a second rounder, I'm sure a 23 year old winger with a year left a 2.1 could at least get the same amount.

Absolutely, but this is strictly for next season where they will literally have 0 money. I made this after seeing the tsn roster. For some reason they set the cap to 85mill. If it's at 83 they NEED to shed cap. They also will not be able make any moves or have flexibility for extras/bonuses.

Honestly, I see nylander getting dealt in the off season for a young nhl ready tallent (still on elc and could step into a lineup) plus a good cheap dman. 7 million is a TON of money, and could really save them. As for kappy/johnsson, bridge them both for 2 years at a combined 5-5.3 million.

well who are u gonna trade. if u arent willing to trade nylander and marner etc, whose left? brown, kapenen, johnsson. thats it. zaitsev's contract is pretty bad because of the term. brown is only like 2mill. kapenen johnsson make under 1mill for now. who are u realistically gonna trade. marleau has a nmc/ntc. u cant buy him out either cause he plus 35.roll with it

I think they'll be forced to bring the term down to lower marner's aav...just like matthews....maybe as low as 3yrs.

Even at $11m...I am doubtful that Marner will sign for less money and more term than Matthews

That's the point of this thread. How will they make this work? I could see nylander getting dealt as he does not look integral to the team as of now. Hes making 7 million to play 14 minutes a night on the 3rd line and 2nd pp. His contract is structured so he can be dealt and get maximum value back from a team who doesnt want to pay the "real money". Obviously they could get a large return (nhl ready forward + good cheap dman). I dont see a team trading for zaitsev, and I dont see toronto trading hyman. At the end of the day, they are in trouble no matter what anyone says.

carolina needs scoring. they have defensemen. hamilton would be a great fit. a top 4 of rielly, hamilton, dermott and muzzin aint bad. gardiner probably leaves. sandin could play next year. so not a bad group.

I just feel like a short term deal could kill them. Freddy has to be re upped in 2 seasons, kadri and Reilly are done in 3 seasons. Imo you give him job security with the same contract structure as Matthews. He wont make as much to Matthews as hes not a centre or goal scorer, or the face of the franchise.

No he doesn't. No they don't.

Kapanen has one season, largely playing with a top 5-10 centre in the league, where he's still not likely to break 50pts. I like the kid. He's a very useful asset at the right contract ... but there's no way he gets that figure. Leafs will offer a $3M/3yr bridge and if he wants more he signs an offer-sheet (and no team is giving him >$4,059,322). At that point, he has to weigh up whether he wants to stay in Toronto or not (people seem to forget that players actually have to decide to sign the offer sheet). We'll see.

They will shed both Zaitsev and Brown. Zaitsev is overpaid for sure, but it's not by as much as the people groaning constantly think it is (probably by $2M). Also, in the right situation his deployment could reduce that (i.e. on a team where he isn't 5th in the PP pecking order for dmen). My view is they should package Brown and Zaitsev together and aim for huge expiring contracts this season to try to offset the "real money" component for a team with an internal cap ... but waiting until paying out Zaitzev's 1 July bonus could work too (although that comes with the activation of a limited NTC as well).

I suggested Z+B for Wilson/Varlamov in COL as a possibility ... but the negative impact on this year's SC chances might make it worth waiting for the summer.

zaitsev has 5 more years on his term. he's turning 28 this year and on top of that his play is regressing. like he completely fell off, especially in terms of his offensive capabilities. it'll be really hard to find suitors for him unless you retain and add an asset for a team to take him. brown is a 3rd line player. good player but nothing that would entice a team to take a bad contract with term. highly doubt colorado trades varlamov. the athletic reported thye they're discussing an extension, but this was a few weeks back and the avs have fallin off a lot, so lets see, but pretty sure they can get more for varlamov. when he is healthy, he is a number 1 goalie.

We disagree about Zaitsev's "regression". He does not fill a need on the Leafs which has led to poor usage since his rookie season when he ran one of our PP units. On a team that needs that needs a special teams defenseman (he is a strong PKer too), and has defensemen that play lower risk hockey in general (i.e. not Gardiner), he fits in well. I'm not saying he's the best #4D ... but he's closer to a neutral asset than many given him credit for.

On Varlamov I'll happily rescind my point if you say they're talking extension. I was just looking for big REAL dollars as an example and he and Wilson stood out.

i guess we can agree to disagree about zaitsev's regression