honestly, aren't you kind of under paying Kapenen? Like why wouldnt a team just offer sheet him at 4 million and give you a 2nd. I am sure the Oilers would rather do that then give a 4th for a 3rd line winger.

Who says a deal doesn’t get done before July 1st? Kapanen has 1 ok year while playing with Matthews. That doesn’t equate to a big contract.

I always think it's ridiculous to trade regular RHD Zaitsev and expect guys like Holl, Borgman and Kivihalme can step in and play big NHL minutes. Leafs have their biggest depth at forward and forward cheap replacements. So why is there reluctance to trade a big cap forward fo prospects/picks or ELCs in order to create cap space.

No they are not. He and Johnsson are average top 9 players who benefitted with playing with Matthews. Every GM knows this and none will pay them 3+ mil

nope

Given his comparables I think 3 years at $3M is probably at the upper end of fair, an offer sheet is possible for sure if the leafs let it go to July 1st, but it seems teams tend not to do that. Also just because Edmonton may offer more, Kapanen may not want to play there.

The main purpose of this was to see what the leafs look like without any additions, so I didn't try to acquire any roster players. In other posts I've played around with trading Kapy/Johnsson + for Pesce/Miller. But overall I think you have to consider a players value in relation to his cap hit. IMO Zaitsev isn't much better than a replacement level defender and is not worth his cap hit, where as even though they have a lot of good forwards, I believe they're all worth their cap hit.

????. Then if Zaitsev isn't worth his cap hit, no other team wants him, therefore he just can't wished away. Then if he worth close to his cap, the Leafs need to keep him cause they don't have replacements.
For those reasons, IMO Zaitsev won't/can't be moved this summer.

Other teams will probably evaluate him differently, the entire league doesn't agree on everyone's value, otherwise trades would never get done. And even so they don't have to trade him for assets, I traded him to Ottawa because they have a lot of cap space and i figured they would rather have Zaitsev than a player who can't play of similar cap hit. Even if that's not enough they could throw in a pick/prospect to get rid of his salary.

Also the leafs still have 3 pretty good defence men without him, I don't think they're hurting that much

Tho you are 100% correct. I am also very confident, that almost any winger would roll the dice to play or have the chance to play with the best player in the NHL for the next what 6 years left on Connors deal.