@Saskleaf
Better or worse?

Yea I ain't diggin that defense

worse, Why would anybody do this? Avs say no

All good, change it up anyway you want. How about I don't resign Hyman, trade him at the deadline. Don't sign Coleman. That's 7 mil and change to add to the D core. Heck, find a 4 mil goalie and go after Dougie Hamiltion.

lol of course not, will be too long to explain

Who would u have signed in 2018? You would have been 10 mil under the cap and would likely have signed JVR whose contract is garbage and unmovable rn.

Also if ur doing this hypothetical, the brown zaitsev for Ceci trade could still happen. Trade them both and sign a #1D.

I would have resigned Bozak at 5 mil. Ian Cole at 4.25 and Grabner at 3.35. That's 12.6 mil.

I guess but each of those contracts are bad and the leafs would’ve been worse while they were on the team IMO.

How can you look at that defence and conclude the leafs are better? Worse.

Of course Avs say no, but this isn't a trade. It's reversing a past trade Dubas and Sakic made (I'm sure you know of it).

Deeper at F worse at D

But if you fill in one hole, it creates another hole, because the cap space isn't unlimited. I'm not denying signing Tavares made the defence and depth worse than it could have been, but it made the team better overall. As long as the nhl has a cap limit, the leafs will always have a weakness.

2016 Leafs 40-27 GA 242
2017 Leafs 49-26 GA 232
2018 Leafs 46-28 GA 251( JT signed )
2019 Leafs 36-25 (only 70 games played if they played 82 that number would be way higher) GA 227

Is this team really better with JT? They have literally been getting steadily worse ever year

It's not JT's fault. The 2018-19 was all Nylander's fault (Tavares scored 88 points and 47 goals, career highs). This season, well, it's hard to say exactly what the problem was. No question the leafs underperformed, but to be fair that stupid little virus came along and screwed everyone over. This season I think we can ignore. If they underperform next season, blame JT all you want.

Again dude, not hating on JT. It's that I believe he's signing rushed what could have been a dynasty like team without his cap hit. 100 percent the pandemic has exacerbated their problems with the cap

HUGE Decline from Pittsbugh.

Not a trade. It's reversing a trade.
Besides, it just happened. No reason for it to be a "HUGE" decline.