Quoting: jayjenkins
Good Luck signing Matthews, Marner, and Kapanen with $5.4 in the cap. I agree that the Matthews, Tavares combo would be deadly but the leafs would eventually turn into the Hawks with too much money invested in top players that prevents from adding key pieces. Gardiner and Hainsey are the only notable contracts expiring after the year and combined they only account for $7 which is like 75% of Matthews' contract... let alone Marner and Kapanen
I feel like this is one of those where the team is good enough for one year that you just accept losing some guys. Like, you trade away Kapanen to get rid of Marleau's stupid contract and get enough cap space to keep Matthews, but by that point you've already won a Cup in spite of Patrick Marleau, so he's either retiring or his trade value is at an all time high.
Yes. Good players cost money and the salary cap places a limit on how many one can have at a time. But the teams that do the best aren't the ones that never lose anyone good. Except Pittsburgh. But they're just ridiculous. Most of the teams thatwin anything do so with a mix of overpaid veterans and underpaid great young players and then if the salary cap stays the same, they lose a lot of players, and shrug.
The Caps won the regular season for the last two straight years. This summer they lost Schmidt, Alzner, Shattenkirk, Williams, and Winnik. So what are they doing about it? Leading their division.
It's reminiscent of Lamoriello's teams in New Jersey that had a publicized policy of never re-signing their own UFAs. That worked for them because his NJ teams were so good, collectively, that players did better there than elsewhere, so their contract value and their trade value both went up just by being part of his teams.
I don't know if anyone can get Tavares that cheap, but I think he'd have fun playing in this kind of a lineup. Of course, as a Caps fan, I can think of one place he'd get to play with some better wingers, but... he's a free person. He'll land wherever he thinks he can be happiest.