LongtimeLeafsufferer
Joined: Jul. 2015
Posts: 60,277
Likes: 23,120
The Leafs need to trade about 7m in cap to be cap compliant. Hardly cap hell. Cap hell is when you have too many bad contract that can't be traded or having too much money in retained contracts.
Don't know why you think the will lose Gardiner and Hainsey. They are UFAs, so they aren't the Leafs to lose. Leafs expected to not have those players as players coming off their ELC get more money..
Zaitsev and his 4,5m contract is hardly an albatross, He plays heavy minutes including the PK. Gee most teams have a 4.5m Dman in their middle pairing. So while the Leafs may pay Marner more than Matthews, why should they? Is Marner deserving to be paid the second highest player in the league? So unless an offer sheet is forthcoming, what leverage does Marner have to be paid that much?