The Marleau Idea

He has a NMC and wont wave it for ARZ at this point of his career

he moved his family to toronto from san jose. makes 0 sense for him to go to arizona

Why are teams helping out Toronto??? For Brown and his 5 goals on a power house team?? A 3rd rd pick 3 drafts from now??

The best way to get under the cap is pay Zaitsev's bonus and trade him and a 2020 pick for a 2020 pick to Ottawa. They get a good 3rd line dman and Toronto clears 4.5 mil in cap space.

“IF” Marleau retires his contract will be moved. Not my AGM so don’t shoot the messenger

FTR, this was meant to show the idea that has been posted, but with my own numbers and ideas. This is the same thing that Brooks Orpik did, which worked out great for both the Caps and him. This would likely imply an immediate buyout by ARI, which may require us to give more, and I don't have much of a problem with that.

As much as Zaitzev is bad, yodda yodda yodda, turnover this, turnover that....
he is young, and I wanna give him a chance with Dermott. Its true, the way our d core is set up, we need more dmen, and there are not that many cheap ones on the market. Zaitzev is paid too much. But, he has a lot of term, and with 4 million dollars that's hard to get. He can play while we wait for the swedes (Sandin and Lilly), and if he hasn't bounced back by then, we trade him. At that point, the value to cap down him is also lowered by the term of the deal.

I think if we can pull off the above idea, getting Marleau back and keeping all of those RFAs, it's worth the cost. We lose Brown and a good pick? well worth it considering Trevor Moore's play, and the skill level of our team now. We also keep Zaitzev, and don't cap dump a long term contract (can be very risky if he bounces back) until we 100% need to. If this Marleau idea works instead, why the hell not?