I would rather retain 50% of Marleau’s contract than give up a valuable asset for Fischer and Demers.

But retaining any type of salary means you guys can't afford Andres and Kap as well as Mitch.

The Leafs can sign Marner even if Marner and Zaitsev stay Leafs. But your trade seems fair for both teams. Nice thought.

Much like Eklund, what you said is utter nonsense.

can you explain why I'm wrong? Would you rather lose 1 good player to keep 2 good players or would you rather lose 3 to keep 1 good player?

You are presenting a false dichotomy.

how so

You are saying it has to be a or b and it doesn't have to be a or b. That is the definition of a false dichotemy. The Marner media numbers are a smoke screen, when everyone sits down and signs at market value they liteerally move Brown out and that's all that is needed to make room.

Now there's talk of Zaitsev, Kadri, Kapanen, etc. all getting interest in a trade, and the requirement to move Marleau is going to be a 2nd round pick AT WORST if it its a pure capdump with little coming back. The cap is tight, but its not "oh no, better fracking give away one of our best players" tight.