Gardiner is leaving. Leaf fans boo him on his own ice not to mention he is prime age for UFA and will get 5-6 most likely on free market. Stone will be getting roughly 10m and you still have to sign marner. Also pesce has more value than nylander alone right now with his amazing contract and being a top shut down defenceman at such a young age. Nylander's contract is not good whatsoever currently and zaitsev is a huge dump which almost any team wouldnt touch without a 1st going back to compensate for the next years.

Carolina is not taking Nylander with the bonuses to be paid. Nylander is not traded until after July 1st when his bonus is paid. Carolina can't afford to pay that out.

Carolina CAN afford to pay that, but won’t be willing to do it. Bigger issue is that they won’t be trading Pesce or bringing back Zaitsev. Don’t always trust the Canadian mainstream media’s ‘trade bait’ articles...don’t think Pesce is going anywhere.

I know this was all fantasy but there's a lot going wrong here, IMO. Not just the team and trades but some of the comments above

1. All your 2019-20 figures are wrong because you placed horton on LTIR this year in order to fit Stone in. This means that $3.7m in bonuses earned by Matthews and Marner go on to the 2019-20 cap

2. Nylander is far from the leafs' worst contract. Zaitsev, yes. Probably Marleau as well.

3. I like Brett Pesce for what he is...but I think he's being praised for something he isn't, nor is ever expected to be...and that's a reliable offensive contributor. He's one of the game's best, young defensive d-men but when I hear guys in the Toronto media talk about him as "a guy that can chip on offensively" I wonder if they've actually watched this guy throughout his professional and amateur career. If you give up a player like Nylander or Kapanen...guys who are very noticeable when they're on the ice for the offence they generate...and replace one of them for Pesce, a guy who's solid but will quietly go about his business...the net returns might not be that obvious to the casual fan

4. A common symptom amongst a lot of posters on this site is to judge a player based on ACGM teams here, without actually watching the guy play...that's fine...it's tough to follow mid to bottom pairing players on other teams on a nightly basis...but to spout off like you know better in the threads is a joke. Nylander at a $7m cap hit will likely be one of our best contracts moving forward. It's fun again watching him play and he's back to zipping around the ice like he used to. Zaitsev isn't great for the term and value of his contract...but we're not looking at one of the worst contracts in the league here. It gets magnified in Toronto where we have a big cap crunch coming up this offseason...but to get 20min a night out of a guy for $4.5m is not terrible value. I do think the leaf's ultimately need to sweeten a deal to move him...but this isn't a "huge dump" as the kid can still contribute to any lineup he's in.

Carolina fans being upset about a trade where they get Nylander for Pesce is utterly insane. Leaf fans wanting to trade him for Pesce is even more insane. These really should stop.

I would be willing to put a large wager down that within 2 seasons, almost everyone in hockey will say Nylander's contract is the absolute best on the team. Whenever Babs decides to put him back with Matthews, he's going to score a tonne of points and Matthews game will also go up at 5v5 in a big way. Willy will score 90 points at least once in the coming seasons and at 6.9 his contract is amazing. Its going to be hilarious to see.