There's 3 key assumptions here: 1) Marner takes that deal (I think he gets 10.5), 2) Phil wants to come back, and 3) Management wants to hold that much cap in LTIR for the next 1-2 years.

Canes decline, Pesce is not going anywhere.

Please... if anything thats an overpayment for Pesce

Lol you think kessel would waive to come back to the team that continuously made him the scapegoat and ran him out of town. He’d waive for Ottawa before Toronto

Hey....thats his job here....check his previous posts......

Just to acquire Pesce,,, Leafs had to trade Zaitsev, DAR, Woll, Kapanen, Liljegren and a first. The Pesce fascination know no bounds. Just keep Zaitsev. I would rather keep 6.25m Marleau for one year that having Johnson for four more years.

1) Fair enough - I made it a 4 year deal because I think they'll eventually negotiate around 10M on a shorter term 2) Absolutley needed and 3) MLSE is soooo rich they have no issue paying that out

Zaitsev is a straight up player dump, SDA is an average at best prospect and Woll was the only real steep price to move out a long term contract... Kap, Liljegren, and the 1st are for Pesce

This team is Night n Day different to when he left... the staff from top to bottom is different from his time here and the team is actually good. Kessel thrives with supporting players around him. He was forced to be a cornerstone player when in reality he is a really good supporting player to star players. He is not the #1 guy anymore he would be behind Marner, Matthews, and Tavares.

Why not bring back Phaneuf too? I'm sure a trade with Zaitsev involved would work.

The media and fan base is not at all different. As a matter of fact, it’s worse now. Keep dreaming.

Is Zaitsev really as bad as some make him out to be?
Am I crazy to think he's gonna look like a good deal after July 1st, 2nd pairing defenseman making what he does are gonna be few and far between pretty soon.

Phil our Toronto on his list of 8 teams. Toronto probably doesn’t want him back so he put them and Boston on to make it harder to trade him. So if Toronto offered that, I’d be down for sure.

yeah for sure thats the same...

How do you know that? There has been no official word on what teams are on his list.

the media and fan base put immense pressure on those who A) are the star players (Matthews, Marner, Tavares), B) the ones who get paid the most (Kessel is very feasible at 5.3M), C) the coach and D) the goalie... he is not even remotely in the same position he was last time he was here... nice try though

He’d still be a star player. You think he’ll just forget about how he was treated there before? NiCe TrY.

Of course Zaitsev isn't as bad as he's made out to be. It's a CapFriendly fascination. Leafs are an above average team, Zaitsev plays heavy minutes especially on the PK. He was Gardiner's partner which was challenging. His point total has gone way down because he doesn't play the PP any more. Marner plays the right point. Now I think he is difficult trade because of term not so much his 4.5m AAV But Leafs are ripped in virtually any Zaitsev on this sir There is this perception that any RHD on any team that any Leafs Dman . Now I like Pesce but the difference Pesce an Zaitsev isn't THAT much a this trade posted.

Hey now don't go using context and rationale on this site, might overload some brains... Lol ?

A popular Zaitsev trade we see often Zaitsev and a second for Ottawa UFA DeMelo....because Ottawa has get to the cap floor . IMO teams wouldn't want Zaitseav is because of five year term and for teams cap flexibility is important. So Zaitsev stays a Leaf, if no other reason Gardiner and Hainsey are gone, Dermot is injured, so Zaitsev Having Holl, Sandin, Liljegren in your starting six next year screams of a lottery pick in June 2020.

Because he has always put teams that are 1.) in cap hell, 2.) division rivals, or 3.) previous teams that likely wouldn’t want him back to make it as close to a full NTC as possible. The only reason the pens got him was because Toronto wanted him gone at all cost. So they took on a cap dump just to get rid of him.

Yeah that doesn't look good unless Sandin and Liljegren are off the charts good and once Dermot is back he'll likely take some time to get up to speed.
I've done an armchair GM (not posted) and if Marleau and Zaitsev are kept and Nylander not traded it'll be near impossible to improve the defense. In the ACGM I did I signed Marner for a bit more then $10 and traded Kadri, Brown, Hyman in three separate trades and got back picks and Gudas who makes a whole $3.35M. I also signed both Kapanen and Johnsson for a bit more then $3.15M, it wasn't a great looking roster.. Lol.. And there was almost zero money money left to sign any cheap depth defenseman, maybe I should just post it and deal with the angry Leaf fans backlash... ?

Idk, like if Marleau magically disappeared that'd really help but it's probably not happening and trading one of Kapanen or Johnsson would help a bit but really how many really good defensemen are making what one of those guys are set to make?

To me I'm highly doubtful having three $10 million+ players is gonna leave enough money to build a true contender. Like it's possible they might catch lightning in a bottle and get a whole bunch of guys on ELCS(Sandin) and cheap contracts (Petan) who become unexpected major contributors right away but that doesn't seem overly likely.

Maybe they'll just have to take a season until Marleau expires, not ideal but it may be what has to be done.
It's gonna be very interesting to see what Dubas does.