There isn't a single goaltender in the NHL that I would give more than $6M per season.

Zero chance Leafs retain on Marner or add pick to enable retention; ridiculous 🤦🏻

leafs wont retain and youre not getting mcmann

You made LA the third best top loaded team in the pacific and sold all its depth for a goaltender who will be signed past his mid 30s and block Portillo. We already have Blake making crazy ideas, don’t need this.

This is also without mentioning Marner taking a discount and waiving his NMC to one of the heaviest taxed areas in the league

Well, he's a Toronto homer* and like an unfortunately significant segment of Leafs Nation, he simply can't accept that the last-6-year-long top-down experiment in roster construction hasn't worked, so he wants to pass that on to us.

* Why else would he keep trying to force Marner into the Kings lineup in exchange for Byfield or Clarke?

Leafs pass, not close as all

Leafs aren't retaining. LA is paying for retention from a 3rd team.

What discount? 3x$11.5M is a great deal for him. He'll be 29 when it ends, he can sign an 8 year deal then, cap will be up and he can get $13M+. Same thing that Matthews is doing. Makes way more sense than signing 8x$12.5M if he wants to maximize his earnings.

Also how is this top loaded? Spence is a 35 point D on the 3rd pairing, Danault is a 2C on most teams playing 3C, McMann played above a 20 goal pace this season (15 in 56 games). What depth are you missing?

You’re right, my bad.

Sorry you are going to lose Mitch. He really wasn't the problem. Just the scapegoat.

Yeah, it sucks - he’s my favourite player (obviously). But something needs to change and he’s the obvious candidate to move on from; it’s far from certain though - a lot of moving parts make it a complicated trade

It was a joke that you made LAs top line stronger at the expense of the second and third lines. Fiala and his 73 points, and Moore and his 30 goals collectively cost LA a bit over $12M. Basically those two players provide more offense for LA at $.5M more than Marner would.

No chance LA gives up on Portillo who is the best goalie prospect the Kings have had in a very long time and came to LA because he saw a path at being a starter rather than being a backup. He'd be fighting against Askarov and would be rightfully annoyed with LA.

LA has also given up Clarke which is quite possibly LAs most important young asset behind Byfield. As the Kings keep seeing first round exits, the future needs to be the focus and not necessarily winning now with Kopitar. (Unless PLD becomes a 70 point player this season).

Marner is also a Selke nominee #1 PK guy so there is some value in that but I get where you are coming from.

I actually thing the opposite about short vs long term. When Kopitar/Doughty retire this team is in a lot of trouble. Unless Dubois gets it together there is no top 6C (or highly likely future top 6C in the organization), there is no future #1 Goalie (Portillo is a high risk/high reward type prospect and far from a guarantee). There is a good chance that when those guys retire the team misses the playoffs and is forced to rebuild. If its a 5 years rebuilt the next window opens in 7-8 years by then Byfield is 30.

No right/wrong answer but I think planning to build around Byfield/Clarke will be a disaster unless they also trade Kopitar/Doughty to kickstart that generation of the team.

Kopitar is a Selke winner and Danault has gotten Selke votes plenty of times as well, the team should be fine defensively and Moore is no slouch when it comes to defensive play, Fiala on the other hand, well let's just say he's a lot more exciting on one side of the ice though he has greatly improved since he got here defensively.

I tend to disagree in regards to building the core with the old core here, Kopitar and Kempe definitely mentored Byfield to improve his 200-foot game, next season however Byfield needs to take on his own line which we started to see at the end of the season. Clarke is a different type of beast, all offense and refining his defensive game to be like Doughty would be a mistake, still Doughty can mentor and has said he would like to do so.

The Kings really didn't draft the right support players for Kopitar leaving so the additions of Danault (especially Danaut), Kempe, Fiala,and Moore have really eased the concern of Kopi leaving. PLD has been the real wrench in things, but the likelihood is he plays a Jeff Carter role for LA where he will occasionally go from center to wing.

Byfield - PLD - Danault up the middle (or replace one with Turcotte, Thomas, Pinelli, Hughes, Helenius, Madden) might be alright to keep the status quo. But 26-27 when Kopitars contract ends is also when a lot of notable centermen become available including McDavid, Eichel, Laine, Coyle, Laughton, Jenner, Dickinson.

I actually think LA has built a smooth transition with the exception of PLD, which hopefully a new system will rectify.

Not enough for a superstar, McMann is definitely worth way more than that

(yes this is a joke)