Team: 2019-20 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: May 30, 2019

Published: May 30, 2019

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Trade helps Ottawa get to the cap floor, Toronto
gets an RHD they covet and Calgary clears cap room with a player they want to trade (Frolik), an expensive expendable player (Ryan) and a guy they might not be able to resign in a year (Hamonic). Calgary may not be getting a ton of value here (I would make Toronto's 2nd a conditional first if Hamonic resigns). But they are getting salary moved and adding a guy who can fit into their top 6 in Johnsson, as well Demelo can fill out their bottom pair at a very low cost.

Ottawa could deal either of these guys at the deadline or sooner for picks/futures.

Now in this scenario I would have Hamonic passing through Ottawa first and having THEM retain the salary, but that's impossible using this format.

Obviously this is a 22 player roster, which I believe it's likely Toronto carries with the cap issues this year. They may pull little moves like sending guys up and down from AHL every few days to save salary cap space (Rosen, Mikheyev and Marchment are all waiver exempt).

It's not perfect, but I think there are very few pathways to upgrading RD in the offseason while still keeping our players, and something like this may be in the framework. There are no easy fixes but this avoids the four capfriendly moves I hate seeing:
-Marleau traded (the only way that happens is if you threaten his ironman streak and he chooses that over being a Leaf)
-Nylander traded (never going to get his value back)
-Zaitsev given away for nothing (no team will do that and it creates another hole)
-Trading Kadri and playing Nylander at centre (weakens the whole lineup and we don't get his value back)

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