Quoting: mikearky
Chicago trade is horrible. You are trading a player who will not wave for Chicago, a player who starts the season on IR and a player who has turned down a reasonable contract from Toronot and wants more money for a budding very good defenseman and a decent forward.
Columbus is not trading Anderson with the players that might be leaving Columbus.
This was mostly just an exercise to see what kind of moves need to be made in order to find a way under the cap.
The Minnesota deal may be the most unrealistic but Paul Fenton (Minny's new GM) hasn't really inspired confidence considering the moves he's already made. If he trades Spurgeon, I don't think he's winning that trade. And I hope he makes it with Toronto.
Columbus are going to lose their two franchise players, so yeah, I think the next two seasons are going to be hard for them. I doubt they even make the playoffs. Kapanen is two years younger than Anderson and is an RFA with no Arb rights. After next season Anderson is going to command a hefty raise that might be over $6m, which means the Leafs might only be able to keep him for this next season before being forced to move him again. It's a pretty big risk all things considered.
As for the Chicago deal, I think Dermott will be ready by training camp. Saying he'll be out for six months isn't an absolute. Chicago have cap space to burn, a 22-year-old left shot D with top four upside is what they're looking for, and Toronto could use a good cheap D who can play the right side. They're taking a hit on this considering Gustafsson is already 27! Johnsson will probably go to arbitration and make in the $3m range at most. The Leafs get a responsible defensive forward in Saad (whose been up and down for the last year, so again, this is a bit of a risk for them) for the next two years. And, yeah, I could see Marleau accepting a trade there. They've won a few Cups relatively recently and when players see that they think it's possible they'll do again. That's probably how a lot of hockey players think.