Hes Coming Home

Did you try to get a team closest to 0$ cap space if so well done you did it. I hope that's all you were trying to do here.

Pietro takes at least 9+ million...we saw what Josi' new contract is.

I'd do it. I'd only sign one of Fast/Simmonds to give them a bit more cap space, and have a cheaper forward extra.

Without Marner, keeping Johnsson/Kerfoot is important.

And you get 2 mid 1st rounders to have cheap ELC talent to replace the bottom 6 in the long run.

He was only offered $8M by St. Louis. Teams are operating under different assumptions now, due to the flat cap situation. Players are going to have to accept that they won't be able to command as much money as usual because of the lack of cap space around the league.

An $8.5M AAV is fair for him, especially when you consider that the Leafs can offer the most attractive structure possible to him, thus maximizing the actual amount he'd get. Getting $500k less per year is worth it if you can get all of it in signing bonus and like half of the money in the first year + 1 day, since you can invest that an get a greater return in the long run.

That's also not to mention the sheer number of lucrative sponsorship opportunities that would instantly be unlocked for him. Not sure if you're aware but literally Frederik Gauthier is in a commercial with Sonnet Insurance, and if he can get one, then clearly a #1 Dman would be stacked with offers.

My thought here is that, sure, in a bubble, you lose the Marner trade. But if that new found cap space lets you sign Pietrangelo, then you're essentially moving Marner for Pietrangelo + Severson + 2 mid-1sts, which obviously looks a hell of a lot nicer. I'm only making that move if it's certain that Petro's coming home.

I think that losing Marner at forward is a pretty big loss obviously, but the insane improvement on defence is more than worth it. And this team was pretty much #1 in goals for, so sacrificing some of that to assemble the best D corps in the league is so WORTH it. You still have a one-two punch of Matthews and Tavares to drive your top 2 lines. Then you've also got an incredible 30+ goal, 70+ point talent in William Nylander. Add in complementary pieces like Andreas Johnsson, Zach Hyman, Nick Robertson, and your top 6 is fantastic.

The depth of the forwards arguably improves here as well, as you're essentially swapping Kapanen and Gauthier for Jesper Fast and Wayne Simmonds. ~40 points from Kapanen,~15 from Gauthier for ~35 from Fast and ~30 from Simmonds, along with the experience they bring and the great physicality that Simmonds would offer you.