That’s a first round exit defense and goaltending. It’s been proven year after year with the Leafs you can’t build teams that top heavy

We'll see.

We have seen for almost a decade correct

We'll see

Contract values are a joke.

Have a RFA going to play on the 1st pair but getting less than 2M.

Have a 35 year old goalie taking 1.5M (the same salary as this year) when the cap is going upwards and he’s going from a team that plays defense to an AHL defensive roster.

…and that defense will get destroyed in the playoffs.

…but that’s okay since we want Florida!

So Carolina let in 10 less goals than Toronto did last year so that whole defense thing you're talking about is bullsh*t

There is enough cap space there to add 1M to Liljegren and 500,000 to Raanta, but my feeling is you will not have to spend all of it if any of it at all.

1) I call BS on your Toronto is equal on defense BS.
Last season: regular season
total defense rankings (Car #2 vs Tor #7), GAPG (Car 2.56 vs Tor 2.68), shots against per game (SAPG) (Car 26.00 vs Tor 29.51), PK% (Car 84.38 vs Tor 81.85).

Now look when it really matters:
Playoff defense rankings GAPG (Car 2.53 vs Tor 3.18), SAPG (Car 28.87 vs Tor 31.82) , PK % (Car 84.09% vs Tor 73.33%)

Toronto let in 21 in the 1st round (vs CAR's 15) , 15 in the 2nd round (vs CAR's 14 with 8 of those coming in a bad loss), and then 10 in the conference finals. You as a Leafs fan must be confused about the fact there is a round that follows the 2nd round of the playoffs--I assure you there is.

Show me a Maple Leaf that got Norris votes last year. I can show you two Hurricanes: Burns and Slavin. Go ahead tell me how Slavin is an offensive juggernaut.

So what did the Hurricanes do to improve their outstanding defense (of Burns, Slavin, Pesce, Skjei, and Chatfield--well, they signed Dmitry Orlov from the Bruins (the only defense ranked higher than them last year) and then reacquired a d-man that was +30 and put up 51 points with them the year before on a 1 year prove it contract (Anthony Deangelo).

...but yeah keep telling me their equal and a goalie will jump ship to make the same amount of money when the cap is going up in July of 2024.