my TDL

Team: 2023-24 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: Oct. 31, 2023

Published: Oct. 31, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Marner drops to third line to spread the wealth, similar to HBK line of the Pittsburgh B2B days. His ice time doesn't get impacted. Also lets the Leafs use the draw of playing with Matthews to bring Kane in. 3 very nasty lines, all with a good balance of offensive weapons and defensive prowess. 4th line is an optimal defensive grinder line. On D, swapping out Klingberg for Dumba lets the Leafs keep an offensive element and get a bit better defensively, while adding Tanev slots everyone down appropriately and gives the Leafs a legit shutdown RHD to use either with Mo or as a shutdown unit. Gio gets to rest up and be 7th D, with Timmins more likely to draw in if one of the offensive D, Rielly and Dumba, went down. In Woll I trust - Leafs are 3 NHL options deep so I'm ok with goaltending assuming Woll stays solid - he can come back down to earth, but as long as it's not crashing down - I don't expect that, he's unbelievably calm and technically sound.

Marlies forward depth in Holmberg, Reaves, and McMann should be plenty to plug in should the 4th line falter. Added Pulju as well, can play on the Marlies assuming he doesn't get NHL offers elsewhere which is looking increasingly likely, and if he could be an option to come up, great.

Marner's ice time won't be drastically impacted - it'll come down from what it is now, as it should - but will still be in the 19-21min per night range by the time you account for mid game adjustments, PP and PK, etc. Ice will very much be spread across the top 3 lines with 4th line taking grinder minutes and D zone starts where needed. D minutes will also be relatively spread across all pairs if healthy.

Got them to retain Laughton to exactly 2.4m for a reason - would ship out Kampf in the offseason, have Laughton play 3C (or 3LW if Minten is ready) and bring Holmberg up for 4C.

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