No team ever, has taken on expensive long term contracts that actually cost real $$$$ to reach the cap floor. Three years of 36 year Lovejoy? No thanks.

*35 year old Lovejoy* You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you'll get what you need. Babs deserves a slightly cheaper, slightly younger right handed Hainsey replacement to annoying the armchair coaches of Twitter. ?

If indeed your initial statement is correct would you please excuse me. And thank you for the information good sir.

I don't think marner would sign that low for 7 years. there were reports (bob mckenzie) that his camp think that there worth the same as AM. I'd think the lowest he would go would be $10.5 for 5 (same term as matthews).

also you would have to give something decent with zatsiev to dump him. no team would take him for free.

Johnsson might agree, but Kapanen and Marner definitely don’t

Lmao... best response of the day goes to you sir lol.

Think it will be close to that number on a 1-2 year deal. It’s either that or a trade as I don’t see dubas moving nylander.

Actually I would put his value between a 3rd and a 5th. If it weren’t for cap issues I would have no issues keeping him next season. He has been solid all year.

Jamiepo, your statement supports what most people say about Zatsiev. You would keep him except for cap issues. I.e. his usefulness on the ice vs his cap hit is unacceptable. He is your only right handed D and yet he is the one you want to dump because of the cap. You can't have it both ways, he can't be the first person you want to dump because of cap problems and then turn around and say he has value. If Toronto doesn't value his usefulness vs his cap hit, why do you think any other team will?

Few things wrong with your analysis.

1. The players I would move in order.

Marleau
Brown
Kadri
Nylander
Muzzin
Zaitsev

I don’t think any of these players are useless but salary needs to be moved.

2. Zaitsev is not our only RHD, I do think he is our best at the moment though.

3. Just because a player is not on the best contract doesn’t mean they are useless. Toronto can’t afford the luxury of paying a 2nd pairing Dman 4.5m. Although many teams do. Our high priced offence doesn’t allow for it. At most zaitsev makes about 1m too much. I would say it’s closer to 750k. For most teams this isn’t an issue. But it does take away most of his value. Otherwise I would be trading him for a pick and a prospect.

On a side note it’s funny how RHD get some sort of a premium on this site but because zaitsev is a leaf and a bit overpaid we need to package him with Matthews to trade him.

If I needed help on defense, (especially the right side), and I had room for 4.5 m for the foreseeable future, I would gladly take Zaitsev for free. He's not as bad as most people think. But the question is ... is there a team like that?

if there was a team willing to take zaitsev for a 5th he would already be gone. stop acting like anybody suggested you would have to add matthews to him. Your kidding yourself if you think someone is going to take him for free. maybe it's your leaf bias which is telling you that he's a good player while in reality he's not. he has heavily declined since his rookie season.

maybe you should take a look at what other teams have giving up to get rid of cap dumps.

no one is going to take him for free. everyone knows he's declined heavily since his rookie season and that the leafs will be tight against the cap. nobody is helping the leafs out for free.

I would disagree with the heavy decline comment. And like I said up there, (maybe I wasn't very clear), they would be helping themselves out. Not the Leafs.
Perhaps we will have to agree to disagree and that's ok. ? cheers mate.

He’s not a cap dump... that’s my point. It’s not a bias. He plays some tough minutes and he’s dependable. With our lack of RHD depth I don’t see paying to move him as the best option.

Much like Manson this season he is just being used in a different role but he certainly isn’t bad. His first season he had tons of PP time and was a defensive liability. Get off hockey dB and watch a game. Who’s on the ice when we’re holding a one goal lead for the last 2 minutes? There’s a reason why Babs trusts him and paired him with gardiner all season.

I did not call anyone useless. All players in the NHL deserve to be there. However, in a hard cap world, everything has to be measured in usefulness vs cost. If I owned a big gas guzzling truck that only gets about 10 km per litre, the truck is not useless, it would take me where I wanted to go, but its usefulness is more than offset by the cost. Big difference.

Also, regarding RH vs LH defense balance, seems like it is Babcock that is a big believer in that, as are many of the Toronto posters on here. Don't think anyone is saying that AM needs to be included with Zaitsev to move him, but most people seem to realize that teams will not take Zaitsev off Toronto's hands without additional compensation, and certainly will not give up assets for him. Because Toronto is in a position where they must move cap to become complaint next year, this drops his value even more. Not saying Zaitsev is useless, but in a cap world, his net value is not good.

I watch games and I read a ton of forums (hf , reddit,db). common thing I see is leaf fans repeatedly trying to dump zatisev. half of them actually believe he has value and the other half thinks he's a dump. your entitled to your own opinion but I don't think anyone would take him for free. I guess we'll see in the summer since the leafs will need to move him to make room for matthews/marner extensions but I'd easily bet $1k that nobody would take him for free.

I agree with that... his value is exactly that... not good. The absolute best we get for him is a 3rd and that’s wishful. I would be happy with a 5th. I think his contract makes his value neutral.

The leafs don’t have to move zaitsev. To me a team that needs RHD shouldn’t trade their best one for nothing. To me a player like Kadri or nylander would bring in a much better return. I don’t think dubas views it that way and I can’t help but think that muzzin wasn’t brought in to replace gardiner but zaitsev. His inability to play the right side in the defensive zone hurts that idea though.

Gee, I don't know why folks Zaitsev is such bad value at 4.5m. (He's the second high paid Leaf Dmen) Carolina has 4 Dmen making 4.5m or more. Washington 3, Montreal with 3 with Alzner. Calgary 3, San Jose 3. Winnipeg 3. St Louis 3
The real problem with trading Zaitsev, is the Leafs don't any viable replacement to play big minutes next year. So Zaitsev's salary isn't so bad, it's his five years left on contract that would discourage a trade.
Leafs with their RFA signings next year are about 6.5m over cap.
So order of guys to be traded IMO
1. A retired Marleau
2. Kadri....and someone else
3. Brown and probably Kadri
4. Nylander. He's my first choice because it just one position that has to be filled.