They should protect Dermott, Holl is so easily replaceable

Who would you target to replace Holl? Here I signed 27 year old McCabe to replace Dermott, but I don't see an affordable right handed UFA defenceman on the market to replace Holl

Timothy Liljegren

Or Dermott himself

Idt Liljegren can play the shutdown type of game that Holl can play but it would definitely be worth the look. It would be nice to have someone signed for insurance should Liljegren struggle to take Holl's minutes. Dermott could probably fill the hole left by Holl but the Leafs are still without a top 5-ish right handed defenceman.

So, Evolving-hockey projects Taylor Hall to get 7 million in free agency. Some of that can come out of the McCabe contract, but not enough to get under the cap.

Beyond that, I think that projection list ends up costing Kerfoot, given that the forward options for Seattle are a lot bleaker than their probable Dumba-Ghost Bear-Dunn led D corps. Either way, Dermott's probably the most likely one to lose, and Jake McCabe more than covers him in the short term. Love seeing that signing, Jake's almost certainly gonna provide the best value for money of any UFA this year.

The roster looks good, if about a mil away from fitting cap-wise. Running a 22-man roster is kinda dicey, though, and I certainly wouldn't want to risk a 21-man to fit Hall. Robertson on the second line is still a decent-sized question mark too, and there doesn't seem to be a plan B in the realistic scenario that he's a sub-replacement player. Having an extra mil for a guy like Riley Nash or Stefan Noesen would sut out a sizable amount of risk.

I'm not 100% sure on this because Tableau's refusing to let me see all three zones data, but given how defence-driven McCabe's results are and how generally good at hockey he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he could still perform perfectly fine on his off-side. At any rate, David Savard and Mark Pysyk should be available on the cheap this offseason, and Niklas Hjalmarsson hasn't typically had any issues playing on the right. Those guys do need a puck-mover at LD for them, but the Leafs have no shortage of puck-moving LHDs.

Can't see Savard being too cheap.

Evolving-hockey has him at 1.6 million this offseason, which makes sense given that NHL teams mostly pay for scoring, +/-, and TOI, and he had 6 points in 19:51 minutes a game with a -27. Those stats don't reflect his actual on-ice value, but NHL GMs can be pretty stupid sometimes.

He was making $4.25M and went for a 1st and 3rd at the deadline, can't see him taking a 60% paycut even with the cap being flat.

I can. Same with Foligno.

pittsburgh says no. malkin is out atleast half the year, blueger is too valuable. also, he's worth 3x the salary youre paying him.

Foligno yes, Savard no, some team will give him $3M