Team: 2019-20 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: May 17, 2019

Published: May 20, 2019

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Just want to point out a couple things here:

1) the list of wingers that make 10M plus is incredibly small, in fact it starts and ends with Patrick Kane so can we put the idea that Marner is going to make almost as much money as Matthews to rest? He won't crack 10M and will only get close to it if he takes a 7 or 8 year deal. Also he's coming off his elc which gives him no negotiating power short of what Nylander did, and even he can see what that did to his season, so it shouldn't be as crazy a negotiation as that.

2) the Johnsson and Kapanen negotiations are completely different scenarios and some people seem to be missing the business side of the sport. Kapanen is in the same situation as Marner in that he does not have arbitration rights and therefore has little power, and unlike Marner he is also replaceable, he also won't get a long term deal meaning the leafs will not have to buy any of his ufa years which will bring done his AAV significantly. These 2 will be very similar to the Brown and Hyman situation a couple years ago; Hyman was older and Brown was seen as the more valuable piece, at least by many fans, and Hyman ended up making more money on longer term because not only did he have arbitration but he was giving up ufa years and the leafs needed to pay for that. Johnsson is in a similar position to Hyman and this leads me to guess that he will not only make more money, but get more term as well.

3) unless Bracco has an great offseason and an amazing preseason/training camp I don't see him breaking camp with the Leafs unless they either believe Hyman with be ahead of schedule or they have further injuries to deal with as he had a good AHL season but there is still a lot he needs to learn in the way he uses his body to his defense; another half year or more in the AHL is most likely his career path with a late season call up like Moore this year and Johnsson last year.

4) My next thing is Sandin and Liljegren; both are well on their way to being top 4 defencemen in the NHL but I don't see them being NHLers right now. Sandin is 19 and Liljegren isn't much older, they need time to improve. Sandin may get a 9 game tryout while the leafs buy time for Dermott to return but I don't see it going further than that.

5) I am operating under the news that Dermott and Hyman are expected to miss the 1st month of the season/10 games of said season and have therefore pushed them to the LTIR in order to show the possible roster for the start of the season. When they do come back Bear and Engvall go down the Marlies and the Leafs have just under 700K in cap space with no scratches. They would have to utilize emergency call ups and waiver exempt players come injuries but it is doable. They could also do another league minimum contract to a vet like Ennis did this year to squeeze in under the cap.