Good Opinion Haver
Rejoint: juin 2018
Messages: 1,837
Mentions "j'aime": 939
"Their going to have to trade at least 2 players imo and sign some low priced role players"
This has been how the Leafs have had to handle every offseason since the first year of the Matthews and Marner contracts. With the money that those guys are making (and have more than earned it should be said) there was never going to be a real middle class on this team. You were going to have your stars and then bargain bin guys. And that can work, if you have the right bargain guys. The question was always could they find the right guys. Bunting and Kase seem to be working well. Spezza has been great. Holl and Kerfoot...sometimes they're good (really good even!) sometimes they're not. And some bets just don't work (Joe Thornton, Wayne Simmonds even though they keep carting him out there, Nick Ritchie).
As for what they do next season- Robertson is going to be pushing for a spot. Good player on an ELC. Amirov could be there too. Mikheyev you probably let go (he asked for a trade anyway). You try to shed one of Holl/Dermott and Ritchie like you did. I think you're probably about a million too high on Lilijegren and there's no reason he should be making more than Sandin. If there's something that makes sense you can probably move Kerfoot. I might also try to keep Campbell and sell Mrazek instead if Campbell comes at a reasonable (between 4-5 million) price. And idk why you're not re-signing Spezza, he's been more than adequate as a role player and the organization seems to really value him.
By not signing Mikheyev, replacing Crouse with Robertson, and knocking a million off of Lilijegren you're probably looking about 3-4 million to try and upgrade 2LW. Or maybe you just stick with Kerfoot.
Overall point is though they'll be fine next offseason unless they f*ck up in the playoffs again and then it doesn't matter because they're probably moving a big name regardless.