This is what a healthy roster would look like. But Engvall makes too much to stay up (27000),putting Gauthier,timashev or Spezza to minors doesn't give enough cap relief. So if a trade doesn't happen then they'd have to go with only 20 player roster to keep Engvall up .
Bad enough with 21 but 20 is cutting it to thin.Cant demote another defenceman or a player making 700000 or less so Engvall or moore would have to go down,if only one of the big boys took just 50 grand less on there contracts

If only we could trade Cecil and use the money to keep the forwards we have up then try and find a 2,000,000 or so gem like we did with hainsey or Washington did with kempney a few years ago. Also we could then add what's left maybe around1,500,000 plus 700,000 we pay Hutchinson 2,200,000 and use it to pick up a quality backup
(Craig Anderson at half cap retained) would be nice as he's a free agent at year end and ottawa would get an asset from toronto

Ceci's UFA this summer, so while he might test the market to see if anyone thinks he's worth $5M, he might also happily stick around Toronto at a more reasonable cap hit, for a while. He's fixed his defense in T.O., and now he can work on adding the offense back into his game, and try to eventually be worth the kind of money he's making right now. There's no risk of arbitration and there's a good chance Liljegren is up full time next year.



The Leafs would never send Spezza to the minors. Nobody would ever take a discount to play with them again.

If he doesn't have a spot, he gets gifted to the team of his choice. I'm sure most teams would be thrilled to have him. As a Caps fan, I think he'd add some secondary scoring, help out with faceoffs, and improve the 2nd power play unit, if not the first one.

Ceci has, in no way, fixed his defence. He's by far the worst defenceman on the team now that Barrie has righted himself. He may have trouble finding anyone to give him any contract next year. I wouldn't pay him 1.5 to play bottom pair minutes let alone 5 million.

How do you tell. I know his plus/minus was one of the reasons people didn't like him in Ottawa, but he's 18 ahead of Barrie in that right now... so?

First, it's really CapFriendly nonsense that Ceci is so bad that he has to traded. Not sure if the the Leafs available cap is exactly accurate. Leafs did some cap relief with Marner being on LTIR.
Engvall might be a long term centre but currently he's playing well on LW and Spezza is doing well at centre.
The Leaf need cap relief if they are to improve their goaltending and on defence. But finding a cost efficient Dmen better than what the Leafs already have will be difficult. Last four games, a road trip to St Louis, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton....three wins, eight goals against. Leafs are hoping this is the new norm.

I watch the games and Ceci is really not good. He lacks poise, he's not very good at clearing the front of the net and he's a possession black hole. He's just not that good of a hockey player. Often blows his positioning and really struggles to make the right decision often. I think for TO they have 2 needs, 1) a backup if Hutch doesn't win his next game which will likely be against Detroit and 2) a better RHD to replace Ceci. Mind you, if he's on the bottom pair he's not the worst guy you can have but I think Sandin, or Liljegren could already be better and both have limitless potential in comparison.

Both Barrie and Ceci have experience playing top pair, going out on the ice with their teams' scoring lines. Barrie is still getting that treatment. Ceci isn't.

Exactly, Keefe doesn't give minutes to guys just because he likes them. He gives time based on merit, Babs had his favourites and loved Ceci for some reason. Much like he loved Hainsey and Polak and overplayed those guys. Since Keefe became coach, Ceci has had his icetime plummet and better players are getting more opportunity. Holl has been terrific and Barrie has completely turned his season around.

I'm not saying to send Spezza to minors for the reason given plus it's not enough cap space even if they did. If you look at my projected healthy line up they need to shed over 730,000 to fit in with 21 guys ,Spezza and the others I mentioned are not enough if only one player moves and Engvall stays As for marner cap relief there was none (only while injured) you can't bank cap relief if the team has a player on ltr.Also. if no ltr.Also then every dollar not up to the cap can be calculated and used at trade deadline to add a player but not applicable when a team has players on ltr