Yea, I don't see Ritchie traded though. I really wonder what Dubas was thinking last summer when the cap tight Leafs signed him. But not only Dubas, the high priced Leaf executives who also have duties related to the cap and the structure of the the team. Gee, they could have gone on CapFriendly and decided, "Hey this isn't going to work with Ritchie."

I mean Ritchie hasn't played well but there wasn't much reason to think he wouldn't before the season. They signed a player who was on pace for 20ish goals and 40ish points the season before who comes with 'size' and 'grit', The Leafs took 4 low cost gambles on players, Ritchie, Kampf, Kase and Bunting. Ritchie stands out because he's the only one who didn't work. Bringing in an excess number of them was an insurance policy.

It's just the 2.5m that seemed unworkable. Remember he was probably the last signing of the summer. Even if he was playing to a 2.5m level it's still a cap issue. But you're right about the other three, great 3.7m value.

2.5m isn't a cap issue. Any one of those players could be removed from the list and the cap would work.

This is a quality assessment. Taking the low-budget risks that they had to has paid off really well and management should be praised for utilizing the small cap space they had to make this team.

So far has anything they did in the offseason hurt the team? Top 5 in the league and good depth. Injuries happen and it hasn't hurt them at all.

You're right so far. But no doubt about it, Ritchie's 2.5m cap hit especially next season is causes problems. Actually I'm sorta content leaving the team the way it is this year.

I do think he could prove more valuable than anyone gives him credit for down the road. The playoffs slow down once the refs put away their whistles and then a big boy who can get to the net and hit may be better deeper in the playoffs than in the regular season.

Well maybe, but who does he replace on LW? Barring injuries Bird, Kerfoot, last nights Mikheyev and Engvall are superior players.

There is almost zero chance they don't deal with injuries.