Let's not have this obsession with a RHD. It's getting 6 or 7 competent Dmen with three or four thing that can pay the right side. Next year barring trades it's two RHD Zaitsev, Ozhiganov. and having either Muzzin, Dermot or Reilly playing the right side.
Depending on the Marleau situation (does he retire?) we'll see how the cap works out. But I do agree with maybe Nylander has to be traded for cap reason, and getting a RHD back seems a logical trade.
IMO Leafs aren't making any major TDL now. Just not the cap flexibility till summer.

The notion that trading away the better player (Nylander) over Kapanen or Johnsson will somehow make the team better is wrong. If you have a game breaker which Nylander is far more of than those other two guys combined, offers way more to the Leafs than they'll get back in a trade. If a move needs to be made to free up cap space then you move out a depth guy that can be replaced relatively. Like Brown, or Johnsson.

Reilly muzzin dermott ozhiganov and zaitsev can all play the right side. I think this obsession with handedness has reached an all time high.... I mean we just picked up a great Dman to play the right side next to Reilly and your first thought is”well he’s left handed so let’s go get someone else”.

Funny you posted this while I was typing mine lol.

This handiness obsession is kinda crazy. Fact is there fewer right hand shots than lefties, so statistically, teams are going to have have might half one lefty playing the right side. Never hurt three team Norris winner Pierre Pillotte playing on his offside or Ray Bourgue.
By the way, I posted a Leaf team 2019/20 this morning with a retired Marleau. It's my opinion, he has told Dubas "he is done" and will retire during the summer...freeing up cap space.

I only suggested Nylander if there is cap space problem next year and that much cap space is needed. Actually I believe Marleau is retiring this summer, freeing up cap space .

One can hope, but he's still playing pretty well. If they win the cup I imagine he'll for sure step down.

I think a Cup will do it, but I also think Marleau is "done". He will retire since he no longer NHL good next summer. Well that's my thought. Might a reason the reason the Leafs agreed to take a 4m Muzzin next year.

I have read in a couple of places that this may be the case.

Just my observation. "he looks done". A big change since last April.

I mentioned Pierre Pilotte earlier. I went to his celebration of life last year. He had taped something some things and here is one funny story he told.
He won the James Norris trophy. The league sent him a wall plague "James Trophy winner etc". Two years later he wins it again. Pierre phones Brian at the league office and tells him "I have a plague. Could you send me a small replica of the James Norris trophy, it's a gorgeous trophy and I have wall plague already". Silence on the phone, then Brian replies, "Yea you can have the trophy but it will cost you fifty bucks"
Two years later, he will the James Norris again. He phones Brian at the league office. "Brian, it's Pierre. I want another James Norris trophy replica. Yea, I know. Fifty f...ing dollars."

Not ruling this out as an option...but Marleau spent 18 years with San Jose and was deliberating a 2yr offer from them when the Leafs came in with 3 years (https://twitter.com/DarrenDreger/status/880838198062186497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tsn.ca%2Fmarleau-considering-two-year-deal-from-sharks-1.793452)

It was believed the third year, along with how Toronto performed after matthews, marner and nylander's rookie year, persuaded him to uproot his family.

Now...things may have definitely changed...Maybe his body feels beat up...or that he's lost a step and can't contribute the way he expects himself to....so he's ready to hang em up this offseason...but I'm not convinced this is what caused Dubas to pull the trigger.

For me it seemed to coincide more with contract talks with Matthews and the news coming out his camp is pushing for a 5yr contract...if that number sees Matthews AAV under $11m (which Dregger was on leafs lunch today suggesting $11m AAV would be the high end on a 5yr term for Matthews)...then maybe that's the difference Dubas needed to feel confident he could make it all work for next year

Marleau will count against the cap he sign his deal after 35 doesn't matter if he retires.

It certainly does’t when his contract is traded. Only being owed 1.25m after July 1st will make this contract very easy to trade.

Sure it matters.

If he doesn't retire it's unlikely he would waive his NMC to facilitate a trade.

If he does retire...what does he care where his contract is traded? Leafs would obviously have to work out a trade with another team where they take the cap hit and the leafs offer then something for doing so...but Marleau retiring opens up an avenue for his contract to be traded.

This. Except I think that he probably won't retire but they will do a Brooks Orpik type trade with some team that needs to get to the cap floor. Until that is illegal I feel like it is a great cap circumvention tool. They desperately need to re-allocate that money. Maybe he can come back at a 1 year $1.5 Mil deal or something like that.

I think that might be even more far fetched...but not impossible. He'd have to waive to go to a team...that team buys him out and he opts to skip the waiver process. It costs that team $833k split over two years but they take the full $6.25m cap hit. He's then UFA and can sign back with the leafs for $2m or so. Works in theory...but it wouldn't surprise me if the league quickly closed that loophole and issued penalties to the teams that pulled this kind of stunt off (same way Devils got penalized after the fact for the Kovulchuk contract). So it's playing with fire when it's obvious a team is exploiting the CBA language to circumvent the cap

When you look at the actual penalty that New Jersey got for that it wasn't as bad as when it was first assessed. Also who was the GM that initiated that cap circumvention? The same one who signed Marleau to the 3 year deal that only pays $1.25 Mil in the final year... If this wasn't the intention from the get go then I can't see why the contract was structured that way. There's no way Washington's GM was the first person to think of this.

How many teams in the last 20 years that have won a Stanley cup have had top 4 d man playing on his opposite side of his shot?

Name the team and player please.
I can only think of 1, and that would the Pittsburgh Penguins with Ron Hainsey who was in his prime at the time and NOT 37/38 years old.