Jim Ruhterford this summer mentioned he wouldn't be carrying a 23 man roster, do you think the leafs would make a similar move if they are this cap strapped?

Doubtful. Dubas likely is aware of the challenges and risks of running less than a 23 man roster. Rutherford has put his teams in a position where they only had 5 healthy D men to dress.

They aren't though, they are tight but with Hyman on the LTIR for about a quarter of the season, that'll be around 500K in savings which would bring this roster under the cap with 3 spares.

Also with how I have things above, they would be below the cap since there will be about half a million in savings from Hyman being on LTIR to start the season.

I should add that the main point is that the Leafs have avoided bad FA signings like the plague. The story I have the link too is something I have been harping at for years. Never pay a guy for what he did in his prime playing with great players. It will almost always be a disaster. And still GM's (Benning in Vancouver) spend huge money on secondary guys approaching 30 that will almost certainly be a disaster.

Marleau doesn't count???
Forward Patrick Marleau signed a three-year, $18.75 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday.Marleau, who turns 38 .......

Lou did that tidy piece of work, as well as signing Zaitsev. Which I think was part of the reason Shanahan parted ways and gave the keys to Dubas.

I think as of last year the mentality around the NHL has really started to change regarding 30+ players. GM's are starting to come to their senses but they certainly aren't all there yet.

They still need to get their heads around depth players as well. Still too much money is handed out to secondary players for the work they do with top end talent.

Oh yeah there's definitely plenty of other things that just boggle the mind. Another one is paying too much for defensive dmen who only know how to defend. i;e shot blockers and gritty bottom pair dmen who should be paid 1M max for what they bring to a team but somehow still manage to get 3-4M.....

I generally agree with you. The thing I will say about gritty players is: they tend to get banged up/injured more often because of nature of that style of play.

I'm having hard time reconciling the idea of paying gritty players just a million knowing these types of players tend to have much shorter careers.

4th liners shouldn't ever make much more than league mins, unless it's a centre who can kill penalties like a boss and also win 60% of the faceoffs.

4th liners yes.
There are top end gritty players tho. Anyway, I was personally taking heat specific to all the Marner contract discussions by fans of other teams. Instead, when I comment on a ACGM, I am viewing things as if I were the GM of said team.

I am all for players making the most money they can get from negiotations 4th liners or otherwise.

Depends how you want to look at it. Do these players still command my respect? Of course! But looking at this from a business perspective and not a human perspective, what they do, is not something that is hard to find in the world. Thus it should be paid accordingly. Overpaying them is unnecessary. Obviously they still make good money.

I want you to reevaluate that last sentence of yours and remember that a lot of people don't even make 1M in an entire life time.

Also just to clarify, when I say gritty, i mean the 4th line player whose sole purpose is to be physical. (Hit/fight/etc) A highly talented player can also be gritty but its not his grit that is bringing home the bacon. The grit should be seen as positive bonus characteristic. Not the defining one.

I get what you're saying and as a GM of course I'd be pushing to keep salaries down as far as bottom six forwards go.
I suppose when I was initially posting in this ACGM I was feeling that I hadn't been defending players' rights especially in all the Leafs ACGM's regarding Marner.
Anyway I have mostly viewed things from a GM perspective on here and will continue that.