Trying to take a look at what the Leafs roster might look like come next season, maybe a little pessimistic view. I believe it would be best to sign Marner longer than JT and Matthews and $10 mil AAV sounds like the floor for him. At this point I don't know if that would even get this deal done.
Right now I view Johnsson and Kapanen in a similar vein. I think Johnsson signs a bit longer term, since he has arb rights, and $14 mil/4 years gives the Leafs some long term security. Kapanen, who does not have arb rights, probably signs a bridge deal for $8 mil/2 years. Another bit of security for next summer when the Leafs will need to sign Dermott (After Muzzin and Marleau are off the books). Both are finishing their first full year (1 and a half for Kapanen) so I don't see them around Nylander money just yet.
Those 3 deals put the team over the cap so trading some salary will more than likely be necessary. Zaitsev should be moved before the new year (July 1 NTC kicks in) and I believe CBJ could be a good fit among others (EDM, OTT, NYI). I see CBJ losing Duchene, Panarin, Bobrovsky, Dzingel in free agency and going into rebuild/retool mode. Zaitsev is signed long term at a reasonable salary (maybe on the high end, but just not going to work with the Leafs current situation) and can eat minutes behind Jones and Savard. The Leafs also add Brown (need to shed more salary and Brown seems most likely, could be Nylander or Kadri going elsewhere) and multiple picks (2019 or 2020) since CBJ traded away a lot of picks for rentals. I included Kukan and Sedlak going back to the Leafs. Sedlak is mostly just depth and provides another 4th line option. Kukan, I do not know much about him, but I do like his metrics, he can be another option on the back end.
Borgman and Rosen would be brought up after losing Gardiner, Hainsey, and Ozhiganov (KHL) and would allow Liljegren and Sandin to stay with the Marlies. They could then be late season/playoff push callups.
Again, just trying to take a look at what it would take to keep this team intact. Not sure if CBJ would want this trade, but I could see it working out if they lose a lot of UFAs.
I see you have Marleau on the 4th line... what would you want for him in a trade? Would a 3rd round pick suffice?
I don't see him being traded at all, he won't waive his NMC to leave this team unless it was to SJ. I see him retiring or returning for one more year in SJ after his contract expires
I don't see him being traded at all, he won't waive his NMC to leave this team unless it was to SJ. I see him retiring or returning for one more year in SJ after his contract expires
I wonder if he would waive it to go to Calgary because there kinda good and he would be closer to home to retire there
I don't think the trade idea helps the Leafs at all very much. I understand it's mainly for cap relief, but I think there are better ways to split up Brown and Zaitsev in separate deals and get better value while still focusing on the cap relief aspect.
As for the signings, I don't think they're far off for the most part. I agreee with Johnsson getting more years than Kapanen, cause he just took a 1 year deal and will be looking for more long term security on his end. Kapanen screams a bridge deal to me and I'm honestly not scared of any offer sheets coming his way. I think $4M is a bit overpriced for him though, don't see him going higher than $3.25M max on a 2 year deal. He's only played 1 season in the league, $4M is a pretty big chunk of change for that. As for Marner, I doubt he goes the full 8 years. It'll be too high of a AAV for the Leafs to handle. That's when he gets over Matthews $11.634M per year. I think it'll either be a 6 year $10.5M per year deal, or a shorter 3 year bridge deal. Both of those make more sense to help the cap situation until more space frees up.
I recently made an ACGM myself with similar moves to upgrade the D and got a little creative with a Zaitsev move but still made it work with the cap. It's tricky, but there's gonna be some hard decisions to make soon for Dubas and company. Check out mine and let me know what you think:
Calgary has their own rfa’s to sign. Wouldn’t be a bad spot for him though.
1 reason i think Marleau will be moved is his contract was very front loaded. So any team that has cap space can take on his 6 mil cap hit, but really they would only be paying him a mil for his last year. Not a bad player for a million dollars.
You think holl is ready for 2nd pair d man role?
I'd say Ozhiganov is before him.
Holl is kinda just there. I think Rosen or Borgman could end up ahead of him. I think Ozhiganov probably goes back to Russia to make more money, he has good CORSI numbers but has been largely sheltered and mostly plays against the bottom 6 so I don't see Dubas spending much money on him. If he would take less money to stay in TO more power to him tbh I've liked what I've seen from him. Really don't see much of a difference between the two I think they can both play pretty dependable 3rd pair minutes or top 4 if paired with a strong partner. This defense core is weak on paper for sure, but 3 really trustworthy players with 3 guys to fight for the last top 4 spot until Sandin and Liljegren are ready.