Petan as 3C mostly to see if Johnsson and Kapanen can produce without being babysitted, plenty of cap room in 2020/2021 for C depth.
It's strange that you think 20 goal scorers Johnsson and Kapanen were baby sat, but 20 goal scorer 7m Nylander is seemingly a star by so many Leaf fans. Just for cap reasons, Johnsson and Kapanen don't hurt the Leafs that much...since you need to replace them. It's Nylander and his lack of production and cap hit is hurting the Leafs.
It's strange that you think 20 goal scorers Johnsson and Kapanen were baby sat, but 20 goal scorer 7m Nylander is seemingly a star by so many Leaf fans. Just for cap reasons, Johnsson and Kapanen don't hurt the Leafs that much...since you need to replace them. It's Nylander and his lack of production and cap hit is hurting the Leafs.
I think while Matthews is constant at 60-70 points, he was pushing Nylander last year same as he pushed Kapanen ( hopefully he doesnt go Ennis road after that concussion ) and Johnsson to the points where they are this season. Also 30+ points jump for Marner can also be seen as Tavares "fault". Im fully awared Its always mutual those things.
In Nylander i see a better puck mover and "transitor" as Johnsson and Kapanen are ( so technically superior to both, which means he can push others also ) lack of preseason NHL level training and two months of stalling left the mark on his conditioning i would say, in the period when he was reunited with Matthews this season both of them had better production as when not. Hell....lets put all those three into third line and lets see how they will deliver....would be interesting experiment, admit it
But.....Nylander had two seasons 61 points to show when sat behind the negotiations table, both Kapanen and Johnsson have one 40+ only. Thats why im advocating them getting the bridge deals to prove if they are worth shortened Arvidssons contract or not. As said....plenty of money to distrubute in 2020 / 2021