Paying Shattenkirk slightly less than the rest of the defensemen combined, eh? Just because he'd enter as the best Dman on the Leafs doesn't mean he wasn't the 3rd-best on the Blues (and Caps)... Try more like 6 yrs, 6.8mil AAV. And he's getting that much only due to the context of his free agency.

It would be awful to lose all of the promising youth that has taken years of the Leafs' existence to establish because you made a record-breaking signing for a 28-year old offensive defenseman.

Plus, how are you going to treat Zaitsev so poorly? He deserves a better contract than that. And Panik at 2.5M would be easily matched by the Hawks despite their usual cap stress.

Panik isn't coming back, Marner will play wing, signing Shatty will make us lose one of the triplets for that cost, McElhinney isn't getting big bucks, Zaitsev will get a long term deal, Nielsen won't be ready yet, Kinkaid could be a solid backup option instead of McElhinney-but will command more $$$

Underpaying Brown, Hyman and Zaitsev. Boyle, maybe but certainly not Fehr on the team. Include Kapanen. Nielsen's skating isn't NHL good yet. Overpaying a PP specialist isn't the way to build a team.
You've followed Cap Friendly positions of players.....which isn't accurate.

Why is the cap 85 million?

Why is Shatt getting 12 million a year?

Why would Zaitsev sign a one year deal?

Why?