Or how about just keep Nylander because Liljegren will be ready to play in the next year or two. Then you have Nylander, an incredibly skilled winger with Patrick Kane like hands and unreal skating, edges and puck control ability. Also got Liljegren who can do much of the same as Faulk. Great hands, skating, ability to quarterback the PP etc. and has an even higher ceiling on a cheaper contract.

The problem in keeping Nylander too much money is spent on the forwards and the cap issues are just going to continue with a weaker defense. See my previous teams. I agree Liljegren will be very good but will he be ready next year. He will be part of the future for sure.

I think the problem is that the cap for defensive players is spending 4.5 on Zaitsev and Faulk who aren't really good. That's over 9m you could sign an impact player for.
Also Nylander making 7 isn't half as big of a problem as Marleau making over 6. Without that contract, if you could hypotetically flip Zaitsev, you'd be able to sign freaking Karlsson - an actual difference-maker

Marner won't sign for 9 ... he'll demand 10-11 per ... and will likely be offer sheeted ... Nylander wasn't worth it (compensation picks), but Marner will be for a few teams with cap space who can offer 12M per
Karlsson will also be in the 10M+ range

It all depends on what Marner wants. Is he just in it for the money? Does he like being a leaf and playing with these team mates? Will any other team he would go to have a better chance of winning a cup if that is what is most important to him? Remember that he still will have a free agency big contract to come in the future. Who knows what he is thinking. Tavares left money on the table to sign with the leafs. Kadri signed at a discount to stay a leaf long term. And if the leafs sign him before July 1 then the potential of an offer sheet is gone.

Yea the Leafs have more money invested in forwards but so what? If they are good players they should keep them to create bigger matchup problems for other teams. They are going to have to pay Liljegren and Sandin bigger dollars down the road at some point too so its good to have them on ELC now. Faulk's biggest asset is quarterbacking the PP and providing more offense from the blueline which they have Rielly and Gardiner for. As far as Faulks defensive play goes, he is nothing special. Nylander would benefit team defense more with the underrated two-way game he plays. High success rate of controlled zone entries and more puck possession + O zone time. On top of that Nylander is younger then Faulk and has 80+ point potential. Don't see how Leafs would benefit from this kind of deal especially when Morgan and Jake already do a solid job of quarterbacking the 1st and 2nd PP units plus having Liljegren who will be ready for the big club soon.

We do not to have to trade for Faulk. It could be for any other Right Defense with cap hit less than 5 mil pus assets to make fair. If we keep Nylander then we can't keep Gardiner as there is not the cap room so if you want a quality established 4 to 5 mil cap hit defense then Nylander has to go. Right defense Faulk was replacing Left defense Gardiner. We have more Left Defense in the system.