Joined: Apr. 2017
Posts: 19,224
Likes: 9,590
1. Cap will not be that high
2. Kap will sign for around $3.5M, if not Leafs will have to let him walk. There is definitely not a chance he takes $2.7M, that will result in the league stepping in for arbitration and ironically, Dzingel with similar numbers and age, will be signed in the off season as a UFA and likely command around $3.5M to $4M give or take.
3. Most importantly, you need to understand how LITR works. You can read up on it on this website. You can just LITR 100% of the player salary prior to the season starting. The Leafs must be cap compliant prior to day 1 of the season. LITR, for full relief, doesn't happen until the 1st day of the season. There is a percentage of overage allowed but it's not even close to the $5M of Horton's cap hit. As a Hawks fan, we know this from the Hossa situation. This has a huge impact on roughly $3.5m they need to have available going into the start of the season. See that you have a blog and you have a lot of good logic on it, so no offense, but a strong suggestion would be that you fully understand the LITR process if you want people to take your blog seriously.