No cap, short three roster spots.

Therefor, not realistic at all

Teams don't "have" to carry 23 roster players. The minimum is 20. Healthy scratches are recommended in case of injuries. Otherwise if a player gets hurt and there's only 20 roster players and no cap space, they have to find a way to place the player on LTIR for a minimum of 10 games for the temporary cap relief. But teams still don't HAVE to carry 23 players.. But for some reason this cap is set at $84M anyways and it's likely the cap is $83M so regardless, it's over the cap.

Bingo. Although, nobody really knows where the Cap will be set. It went up 4.5M last year, so I applied the same logic this year just to keep it as simple as possible.

No cap, no scratches, and a pretty big underpay for Marner....realistic?

Oh, and the cap is likely to be 83

If get rid of Zaitzev this is fine. Cap likely 83, and Marner getting at least 10 especially at 8 years. But as both a leaf and Oiler fan I like the Larson Trade. Would prefer Johnsson to Kapanen in there but boy would Kapanen look good with Mcjesus.

Larsson is so overrated, if your giving up kappy and brown the leafs expect at least a 15% cap retention

Larsson is a legitimate top 4 RD defensive defenceman being underpaid. Go look at his advanced stats. Kapanen is going to make at least 4 million likely. Toronto needs to move somebody to fit under the cap (assuming Marleau doesn’t retire or go to Robidas Island).

I’m not saying Larsson isn’t a top top 4Dman with an affordable salary cap I’m just saying his name gets thrown around too much and the leafs are giving up too much in that deal and a salary retention would make the deal done.

I really wish I could've found a way to shed Marleau's 6.25M, but I think the Leafs have too much respect for him and his career to not honor his final contract year in full. A big bag of cash and a Retirement Party would sure be nice though!

I understand that moving Zaitsev and his 4.5M is attractive, but really he is a useful RHD that we need, and filling that hole will be tough too. Exciting that Liljegren and Sandin will be a year closer to the NHL too!

I agree Kapanen is a steep price. But it’s a situation of using their strongest position to deal for its biggest weakness. I’d much rather put johnsson in instead, but don’t think it gets it done. I’d much prefer Liljegren for either.



While I get that a lot of hockey people love Zaitzev, Dubas is GM. And if Dubas follows the advanced stats as much as we all hope he does, would want to dump him ASAP. Just brutal numbers in all ways. Except for the D zone around the net eye test. He can’t clear the puck with possession, can’t pass, and can’t score.

Yeah, that could be true. Or he's being coached that way to be a defensive d first, and that's not what he excles at. He might suck. Or our d strategy might suck.. hire Hainsey as the d coach.. because.. the islanders turned it around 8n 1 yr.

Getting 940 goaltending from 2 career backup goalies will help turn it around

I exaggerate. Top team save % in league at 923. 2nd in PDO. 3rd in number of goals scored above expected (based on shot quality).

It will. As will a well coached team.. don't forget we gave Lou, Martin and Komorov and we took JT, and yet they are right there with us..

The islanders were brutal on d last year. What changed?

What logic is that the Leafs have "too much not honour his contract". The Leafs HAVE to honour his contract....contractually. And teams do carry a roster of 23 players 95%, of time despite claims by some people, they don't have to. I agree with your Zaitsev comment earlier. The Leafs have no one to play his big minutes despite so many think they can put in AHLers and the Leafs would be just fine at RHD.

Getting historically good save percentage helps make the D look good. And scoring way above what your scoring chances saying you should helps wins.

Or a good team defensive strategy helps to give you historically good goaltending...

As for the rest of it..meh. You can't argue thàt they have Martin and Konmaro and we took JT. and yet we're in the same relative spot.

You arguing the islanders have historically good defence? I think you are dreaming. As for the “trade”...find one team that would take Martin and Komarov over Tavares. If you think you could find any you are on some extremely strong drugs. No arguing results. But nobody outside delusional isles fans actually would posit that.

Eh? I think there's a comprehensive problem here.

I'm saying that the islanders sucked last year, especially their D game. I'm also saying that two guys who leaf nation blamed for our woes were offloaded and picked up by the isles, while we took their franchise center, and yet, we're neck and neck in points.

So, how did the islanders make such a turnaround in one year? I'll answer that for you.. Trotz. And I'll further spell out what I think the problem with the leafs d is.. Babs.

As for being on heavy drugs.. that's true.