You forgot Hyman, Kapanen, etc....

Your point is valid though.

As a side note: the defense and goaltending as always is pretty weak

Fail to see how THIS version of the Leafs is any better than the current version!

Durzi, Marchment and Jarvis would certainly be nice pieces to have at this time. however - are they BETTER pieces than Tavares and McCabe and Muzzin (no way to predict his injury issues and no way was he a waste the first few years he was here - he was quite the D stud for the Leafs when he was healthy.

Ouhh Hyman! I did have him and forgot to submit the "trade", him definitely added to first and everyone shuffles. I did think about Kappy, and true. But I already was making cuts on the roster limit.

The defense I view kind of to what we have now, which I think is mostly offensive oriented and not defensive lol. I actually like Durzi quite a bit. Sandman is rounding into his own. You are right though, defense is the weakness. And goalie is obviously identical to what we have currently.

In this scenario knies probably never gets a shot, especially if you add Hyman to the forward group as mentioned in the comments. Either that or the bertuzzi signing doesn't happen which would free up a nice chunk of money to finally shore up the defense.

I think this team would beat the other, personally, but this is something we will obviously never know, but forwards are deeper.

Goalies the same.

D I really don't see as worse than ours currently. Kling is all offense, Durzi and Sandin both have that offense, and I think are better defensively. McCabe has not had a strong start.

And yup, all the respect to Muzzin. Absolute legend and played great for us. Truly gave us everything he had. He plays a rugged game and it definitely took its toll.

However the point of this was to see what we could have looked like if we just took the slow build method. Not forcing expensive trades or pricey UFAs and if that was the philosophy I don't see that trade happening.

We'd also have more draft picks and past ones(now prospects) from the last few years that I didn't bother adding in. Plus the cap space. We'd be in a great spot.

True, nice points.

I did think about not including Bertuzzi because I do think it's a higher price on market value. You're right if Hyman came in he'd probably be a good cap out to still balance it cap and have space for D improvement.

I dunno who id move out. I like Lilly, Sandin, Durzi as long term reasonable hits stick with it patience. All starting to really come into their own. I actually like Reilly's contract(as long as cap goes up as projected) and NMC so doesn't matter anyways. But I think the injury last year really hurt his biggest strength (skating). He seems to be back.

Brodie has always been steady and well worth his deal, but he did stumble in playoffs last year.

Push Gio to 7th Timmons 8 and upgrade 1RD.

Reilly- Upgrade
Brodie-Lilly
Sandin-Durzi
Gio-Timmons???

Kinda off topic but it's always been my opinion that the Tavares signing (while he's still playing great) was simply unnecessary and completely messed up a young up and coming team. If they don't sign Tavares at 11 mil then matthews doesn't come in and say I want more than Tavares and the snowball effect that had on marner. Now that the Tavares deal is almost off the books they should be getting relief but Nylander broke out and is gonna take whatever money is left. Even if matthews and marner still own dubas in contract talks, not signing Tavares leaves so much money to get a great defense. They have way too many offensive guys on D and each year they keep doubling down on offense. It's frustrating even for someone who's not a leafs fan. End rant. Lol

Whoever they put in that "upgrade" RD spot would have to be a defensive stud.

I cannot see any reason for the Kings to make this trade. Toronto is still dreaming with this kind of trade.