That Ottawa deal is bad for the Leafs cause Toronto won't be giving up 2 roster players to get Pesce.

The basis of the Sens deal is there, but straight up that doesn't do much for Toronto. Leafs are actually helping the Sens more than Ottawa helps them because Melynk is so cheap.

To Ottawa:
Zaitsev
TOR 2020 3rd round pick
C+ or B- prospect (I've suggested Pontus Holmberg)

To Toronto:
Gaborik's contract (goes on LTIR and gets his on island)
Dylan Demelo

If Melnyk wasn't so cheap, I could see Ottawa not having to add anything in, but the fact that he doesn't wanna pay a guy to not do anything for him gives the Leafs leverage even though they have the cap issues. That leverage being: any team can take Zaitsev for a reduced price, not many teams have the financial flexibility to pay a guy to not play for them. Toronto is one of them. Advantage Leafs.

Pesce for Kapanen alone is almost fair in reality (despite what some other users on here say), Toronto maybe adds a 2nd in it to get it done and can ship Brown elsewhere to get more assets.

As for the signings, Kapanen is reasonable, Johnsson I think you're in the right ballpark but might be different term and a bit more money. Marner you're off by probably about $1M if you're gonna do 6 years, he'll get closer to Matthews AAV if his term goes longer than Matthews. Best idea is to bridge him until the cap opens up.

AND DEAR GOD DO NOT BRING MARINCIN BACK.... PLEASE!

While I do like Demelo, I don't know how much he really moves the needle for the leafs, I think I'd rather just keep the 3rd, however I agree that that's pretty fair

For Kapy and johnsson I looked at a few comparables who got 2-4 year deals as UFAs after similar production, namely Kase, Pacioretty, Ritchie, Wood, Marcus Foligno, Niederreiter, Bjorkstrand, Tatar, Baertshi, Mantha, Hyman, Brown, Roussell, Dzingel and found that $3.1M/year was pretty fair

As for Marner given that Stone and Kucherov are UFAs with greater negotiating leverage and are flat out better players, and they took $9.5M I think that at the end of the day it will come down to around here.

As for Marincin I don't mind him nearly as much as others lol, but I just want him as like an 8th defenseman, and will only play if 2+ are injured, realistically you could sign any UFA there, like maybe Chris Wideman? I just thought I'd keep him in that spot as a familiar face

Demelo is better than Zaitzev, doesnt really make sense for the Sens if they're only getting back a 3rd and a meh prospect. I get that they have to get to the cap floor but they can do that in more beneficial ways

While I probably agree Demelo > Zaitsev, It will take time for the Sens to be competitive and by the time they do, Demelo may have walked in free agency or be less effective than he is now. The 3rd will be more useful to them when they're ready to win. And this deal doesn't really help them get to the cap floor, as you'll be taking Gaborik's contract anyways. Ottawa would probably rather pay to have a player play for them, than to have a player on IR.

It's debatable if Zaitsev is worse than Demelo and if so, then by how much? Not much at all. The benefit that the Sens are getting is cause of their cheap ass owner. Melnyk doesn't like to pay players. He won't like paying Gaborik to sit out all year, at least with Zaitsev he plays and Melnyk would be slightly happier to pay him to actually play. So the Leafs doing him that huge favour, gets the return of Demelo. Who's at best a 5-6 dman, Zaitsev is at best a #4 dman and on Ottawa would instantly be a #2 dman. It's pretty beneficial to both teams actually

Thats fair but I still think the Sens would have a lot more bargaining power. Everyone knows the leafs are going to be trying hard to free up money

Demelo is already a #2 D on Ott, he's been great for them and is miraculously a plus player on that awful team. I dont think Zaitsev deserves all the hate he gets, hes a very solid bottom pair guy but Demelo is def better (coming from a Bruins fan that has seen both play quite a bit this year)

Demelo is a #2 on a ****ty Ottawa team. Realistically, on a good team he's a 5-6 guy at best. Zaitsev has much more offence to his game to allow him to be higher in the lineup and a more important part to a lineup. On Ottawa, Zaitsev would probably pick up between 30-40 points if not 45 while giving you average defence. Demelo is an average defender that will give you 20 points. Zaitsev is a pretty good upgrade over Demelo

Strong disagree here, Zaitsev has had less pts/game than Demelo in each of his last 2 seasons while playing significantly more minutes per game. If you're taking Z over Demelo, the arguments gotta be defense.

I said he was a #2 D on ottawa because you said that Zaitsev would be ottawas #2. In Zaitsevs 1st season he had 36 but was also a -22. Obviously he needed to adjust to the NHL and has now adjusted but with that, he also cut down on his offense considerably. I dont get where you're getting that Zaitsev is a much better offensive guy than Demelo (which isnt saying much considering Demelo is more of a DFD)

And here’s the idea from me lol. Moving zaitsev and a pick , taking on gaborik and demelo. To me this type of deal for zaitsev makes sense. Toronto takes on the ltir and saves sens money, leafs get a cheap rhd who I think can take on 18-20min games next season.

This type of move I agree with. The pesce move meh... I’m not as big on him as everyone else. Doesn’t save us any cap space so why bother.

My point is, Zaitsev would be ahead of Demelo if they were on the same team. Defensively, they're not much different. Offensively they are. Zaitsev's points have been down since his first year because of how he's been utilized. Babcock tried to make him into a complete dman in his second season and didn't give him PP time. They were more focused on improving his defensive play than worrying about his offensive game. & now that the Leafs are absolutely loaded on both PP units, there isn't a spot for him. It's much harder to get points when he's not getting the same opportunity he did in his rookie year to get them. On Ottawa, he could easily quarterback their second PP unit and you'd see his point production jump back up. Could even move him to the first to play a bit with Chabot. He's a good puck moving dman, just hasn't lived up to the defensive side of his game. Even when he was with Russia internationally and when he played in the KHL, he was the go to guy offensively and that's what made him so attractable. Babcock is just too stubborn to use him in the right role. But he's still an upgrade over Demelo easily