Woah, those guys in the first trade have the same name!

I will allow others more knowledgeable than I explain what happens when you finish the year with less in cap space than the $5.4M in bonuses due. What I will tell you is that next year Matthews gets roughly $10.7M more and Marner gets at least $9.3M more, which is $20M. Where are you going to get that from? Gardiner plus Hainsey plus Brouwer plus Williams plus Nylander's reduction plus cap ceiling rise is about $17M, and you have to sign 8 players to fill out the roster, too.

I could place Horton on LTIR like everyone else's does and that gives you 5.4 million. Also remember even this site quotes Muzzin @ 4 million, the Leafs are paying less than half of that total, since he played over half a season in LA, so add another 2 million which you can't see on this site's calculator.

That doesn't change what Muzzin gets next year. Try doing a 2019-2020 team and see what happens with the new Matthews contract and Marner at about $9.5M.

Kadri (I believe there's a reason why Kadri is playing wing with Nylander his center, pencil Nylander in as 3rd line C next year) and Marleau (retires, his cash value next season is next to zero for a reason, he never planned on playing 3 seasons) gets traded. Problem solved.

Even if Marleau retires his cap hot stays on the team. Hence why guys like Pavel Datsyuk got traded to a team trying to hit the cap floor.

Can't see us trading our Captain, but, anything can happen