Agreed. And you were also very conservative on the numbers for Mathews & Kapanen (Marner and Nylander are close to what I would give em). Even 5.2 for Ellis is a low ball on the open market. But yeah, over the cap with still a player to sign and Horton's LTIR applied. Even increasing the cap by a conservative 2 mill isn't helping.

You are over “this years” salary cap...

IMO you're about a million short in Matthews, Marner and Ellis' contracts. Nylander is probably in the ball park and Marner would be if he signed today. But even with that million you could still possibly be under the cap

Agreed completely. Despite having Marleau come off the books soon, the leafs will definitely need some cap help. The cap will go up, but not by the amount they will need to keep all of their valuable assets. That Zaitsev deal looked like a nightmare the minute it was signed, and will only get worse if he can't find another level to his game. I think some assistance should come in the form of looking to trade Gardiner and Marleau as a package for a D. Only other option when looking for a place to find money would be trading Nylander for a defenceman of his calibre. No way this Leafs team makes it out of the East, let alone wins a cup, with a D core looking like that.

That's the whole point. Didn't you read the Team Description before posting?

That's the whole point. Put the three where they're likely to end up and you're WAY over the cap.

In other constructions I've suggested trading Gardiner now for Stephen Johns (Dallas) or Jon Merrill (Las Vegas). I would even sweeten any deal with a high draft pick because it can be seen as the cost of signing John Tavares.

Agreed

Well the cap might be 83m not 79.5. I'll agree that trading for a one year Ellis makes no sense. But let's think June 2019, and the Leaf management has decided they want to improve RHD and can get Ellis as UFA at a reasonable price. Then for sure, a high priced forward...probably Nylander or Kadri would have to be traded. You may not get quite the value back in a trade and the trade would have to be for picks and/or cheap ELC players.
Teams have cap problems if they cannot fill. out their roster with needs because they have untradeable players blocking their roster due to cap. Similarly the Leafs kinda make a trade this summer. They "traded" 7m JVR and 5m Bozak for 11m Tavares.
Maybe next summer the "trade" might be Nylander for Canes Fleury, Mckoewn and 12th overall pick and Ellis.
So there shouldn't be any regret trading a player and getting value in return and using the cap to sign a player for position you really need.

Another brilliant analysis, argument and suggestion. You really should do this for a living. And how did you know Roland McKeown is one of my favorite prospects to watch?

I didn't know he was one of your favourites. I was just thinking of logical trade....Canes wants forwards, and if the Leaf wanted cheap ELCs who are potentially good, those names came up.

Thanks for saying I should do this for a living. After watching Pat Quinn, Ferguson, Burke and Nonis, I was schooled very well in NOT what to do as Leaf GM.

Who's this?

Acquired Jeff Carter -- Great move
Acquired Marian Gaborik -- Great move
Acquired Mike Richards -- good move at the time
Retained Mike Richards -- bad move, and I said so at the time
Acquired Moilan Lucic -- bad move, and I said so at the time
Acquired Andrej Sekera -- really terrible move, I said so at the time, and hence my interest in Roland McKeown