Leafs 2020

This will be the lineup on game days. On days off Barabanov and Lehtonen (same could apply to Robertson & Engvall) will be in AHL on paper

Possibly. That would be a fun conversation to have.

"Hey Mikko, you know that 925K you were hoping to make, well 30% is gone to escrow (before taxes), but we have some good news for you. You get to keep 100% of the 70K you'll be making for half the year."

There 100% has to be a taxi squad set-up, or some arrangement with the AHL this year.

The NHL doesn't want to have teams dressing less than 18 skaters, and it will be impossible for players to 100% avoid getting COVID (which will count out close contacts as well).

Yeah I agree. I think the whole situation with whether there will be a taxi squad or some sort of cap relief that is waiver exempt for players on the covid list needs to be clarified before rosters can be set. If it's status quo, I think Robertson has to start the year down otherwise they risk exposing a non waiver exempt player to waivers.

Watching the NFL, I can't see any possible way that status quo works. Purely based on close contacts having to be quarantined along with any positive cases.

I believe with so many teams sitting at the cap, with 21/22 man rosters, there must already be some rules changes/tweaks in place that have not been made publicly available yet.

I doubt Dubas/Pridham are happy with a 21 man roster with regular cap/waiver rules.