That's a great way to assure you won't compete another year

That's a lot of cap still for STL to take on.
Half the ROR retention, half the Tarasenko retention, then the Holl cap dump, then the Engvall cap dump.

Plus the 3rd rd pick might not be enough for a team to retain two separate contracts, given that retention slots per team are limited to 3

Go Home

That defense and goalie are still extremely questionable. Up front, could be best in the league but they D and G , to be brutally blunt, is barely playoff calibre

Team is built to win now, not in 5 years.

You may be right. But almost all of that money off the books this summer.

I agree about the goaltending. But who is available? I'd rather hellebuyck but jets are playing too well to trade him. The d is better without Holl. I agree would need another guy to be happy though.

And if you fail this year? You're done. Retool. Rebuild. Team as it is is set up to compete a long time.

You overvalued picks and prospects when in the cup window. A low 1st is meaningless when might take 5 years to be anything. If ever is. Prospects are just that. Gonna be years before nhl ready. Not going to be stars.

That's an awful train of thought that leads you to a rebuild

Eventually. You think Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares are going to play forever? They have a window to win. Now.

These guys are in their primes dude. And in 3 of those cases they haven't even reached their peak. They'll easily be playing at this level for the next 5 years

You're missing the point. They're in their prime or just past their peak now. In 5 years none of them could still be maple leafs. They need to go all in now. 5 years from now is meaningless. Plus, again, picks and prospects aren't as valuable as many people think. A late 1st has maybe a 40% chance of playing even 100 NHL games let alone being impact players.

You should probably take up that value with NHL GMs, because obviously they're doing it wrong.

That's why teams constantly trade 1st for mediocre players? Prospects go justvas often. Leafs have traded 2 firsts in the past few years just for cap dumps.

You do realize the only way teams stay competitive is by keeping their picks? It's like talking to a 5 year old

I dare you to go look at the prospect pools of the best teams in the last decade. All are really bad. Because you're wrong, and spectacularly condescending about it.

You do t need to have a top tier prospect pool, you need to be able to resupply talent into your lineup.

You need to win a cup, which means traded picks and prospects for good players. All the teams that win do it. That's how they win. Worrying about 5 years from now is pointless when can win now.

This is going nowhere. Sure, if you want to shoot your load one year, go for it. Some of us like to be competitive for longer

Losers are happy to make the playoffs and lose. I'd rather win and then rebuild.

I'd argue you don't even have that much increased chance to win with this roster.

That is a different argument. But a better one than championship teams don't trade futures to bolster their window. Still not a good one. Nobody thinks the Leafs aren't a contender. Or I should say nobody not biased against them. Which I have no problem with, but it's still true.