Nobody would be that stupid to resign Gardiner and Hainsey.. also there would be other moves. No Leaf fan said that team would be the same so..

OK, so the team that is already weak defensively will have to sacrifice its #2 and #3 D-men and would still be over the cap by $4M or more, depending on whether they are replaced by league-minimum players, or higher salary ones.

Assuming that the Leafs don't want to play with Rielly plus their AHL defence roster, let's assume one guy at $3M and one guy at $2M are needed to partially replace Gardiner and Hainsey. In that case, the team would be $7M over the cap. Looks like Nylander plus another player will have to go, (assuming they want to keep Marner and Matthews no matter what). Tavares has a NMC and Rielly is indispensable.

That other player does not have to Kadri, but at least Kadri might get you back a decent young cheaper asset. Marleau won't fetch anything, and Leafs would have to GIVE to move him. That might work. Marleau and Hyman for a pick?

All Leaf fans are aware of the salary cap situation. To be honest its a great proplem to have. Its means we have some good players. With that being said the the Leafs top 6 +kadri isnt going anywhere and the only two on defence would be Rielly and Dermott. Everyone else is a potential cap casualty. Its very clear the Leafs need a big offseason to do a quick rebuild of their defence. Basically what i am saying is from this offseason moving fwd the Leafs will be a core focused team. Keeping their top 6 together and top 2 or 3 dmen along with Anderson of course. This is what every successful team has had to do over the last 15 years of the cap era and it speaks to the importance of the Draft in todays game.

Trade Kap and you are under the cap yes 98% of leaf fans know if Marner and Mathews do not take less the d will suck. Can you please tell us how to solve the problem not that there is one

Likely Kapanen would fetch the most currently and we might have to trade him for RHD that is in same age category and good (someone like Philippe Myers) and also Brown can be moved. Marleau would not be moved he has NTC and he is good. Hyman is workhorse. He is important part of Babcocks system. We would need to survive with a bit weaker defence tbh but it would be managable imo. Someone cheap would be signed that would be good but not great.

The only way that kappy gets moved is in a package deal for salary relief. In my book its the most likely sinario. A team like LA that may start a rebuild comes to mind and so ill just use them as an example. Kappanen +zaitzev and a 2nd round pick for Alex Martinez. Its a big price for a 32 year old dman with very little term but its an example of a deal the leafs may look at as it frees up the 3/4mill that kappanen would be making.

Only a baseball coach that doesn't follow hockey would think that a team can signs it's former players who are now UFAs. Fact is UFAs just by definition are not part any team.

I've been following hockey very closely since 1964.

Most teams actually do re-sign their contributing players whose contracts are expiring.

The Leafs can't, but that is not the norm.

Even if the Leas sacrifice Gardiner and Hainsey and Kapanen, they don't get under the cap if they pay $2.5M each for the 2/3 defencemen.

It will take Nylander or Marner and Kadri or Kapanen, plus a downgrade on D.

All because they got greedy and went after Tavares.

I was just saying that’s how to get under the cap. I don’t think Dubai will do anything this year. I don’t see him be corner with contracts he can’t sign or end up over the cap.

I'll agree that Leafs will probably have to trade one of high priced RFAs to get cap space, for a more expensive, Dman. But it was not being greedy on Tavares. That's good business.

They got Tavares free, no assets lost....cost 11m cap. In order to secure Tavares long term it means they can't sign 6m Gardiner and plus let's say 5m Bozak (his St Louis $$$ ). Leafs take that deal any day

If it. means that Leafs have to trade 7m cap hit Nylander to secure a more expensive Dman....so what? That's just an exchange of assets...which is what most trades are.

Most team do resign their contributing players? That's not right. Just take a look at all the meaningful UFAs. They often go to other teams. Especially the ones that are from good teams....good teams often don't have the cap to resign expensive UFAs....even their own.

God I love this ****. Overpay everyone so you can show how delusional leafs fans are that they think the team can stay together.

Chia is not the leafs gm. We actually only need reasonable contracts and it all works nicely.

Stick to baseball

Leafs can get Hainsey for 1.5 mill. Gardiner is gone, Dermott is moved up to the top 4. Rosen and Sandin should be ready for bottom pairing minutes, as could Liljegren. Wouldn't be surprised to see Brown and Hyman gone for a couple of picks with the emergence of Grundstrom/Moore/Bracco in the AHL who are knocking on the NHL door. Sign Johnsson for 2 mill and Kapanen for 2.5. Leafs could get MAtthews for 12.5 and you're just at the cap. Yes the defense will be bad for another year but once Marleau is gone and the cap continues to go up the Leafs have alot of flexibility. They can also trade Johnsson and Kapanen for d help but I wouldn't want to see it happen. They have so much more upside than Hyman/Brown. Wouldn't mind see Hyman, Brown, and a pick to NYI for Pulock.

ROTFLMFAO re Kapanen