Équipe: 2021-22 Maple Leafs de Toronto

Date de création initiale: 9 avr. 2021

Publié: 9 avr. 2021

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

This is a continuation of the "What if Laine was chosen 1st overall?" posts. You can look at those here.

2016 draft: https://www.capfriendly.com/mock-draft/165354

2020-21: https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/2325330

This would be how i, an idiot, would conduct the offseason for the Leafs if Dubas picked Laine.
Move 0: Let Thornton, Spezza, Galchenyuk and Andersen go
Spezza and Thornton are knocking on the door of retirement, Galch hasn't been that good, and most TOR fans want Freddy gone so that Campbell can take his place.

Move 1: Laine resigns at 5 years at 7M per year
I feel like this would be an underpayment, but i wanted to be conservative to save cap for the free agency moves in a bit. Never mind the lost picks due to him being an RFA.

Move 2: Resign Wayne Simmonds to 3 years/1.25M per year
Wayne could be a bit of mentorship towards the few call-ups we have, which are:

Move 3: Call up Nick Robertson, Mikhail Abramov, Timothy Llijegren, and Rasmus Sandin
I didn't want to add to the cap by bringing in established names, and giving the young guns reps in the big leagues now would be pretty good for the future. They know how the league will operate early into their career to learn from that and become good in the future.

Move 4: Resign Veini Vehvilainen at 3 years/1M per year
Veini hasn't done much, so i'm not signing him for more than 1M, and i would assume that, if the cards are played right, a tandem of Campbell-Vehvilainen would be really good.

Move 5: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at 4 years/7M per year
THE BIG FISH. (or one of the bigger fish). I decided on 7M because i needed a bit to lay over for the next free agent get. According to Mark Spector on SportsNet: "Nugent-Hopkins makes $6 million and has become a 70-point player. I’d guess he’ll be looking for Draisaitl money ($8.5 million), though the Oilers may think that’s high."

Move 6: Joel Armia at 3 years/3M per year
We needed a right winger, and i wanted to play it safe by getting a young, unassuming RW instead of splurging for the likes of Brandon Saad and Nikita Gusev.

All of these moves will give us about 2M in cap space for when we need to trade someone away/trade for someone. The lines are below.

1.

2.