Thanks for 4 unprotected 1sts lol

Another offer sheet. I will predict the future. 1. Marner never signs it. 2. See one. 3. Leafs Match.

I'd gladly give up four 1st round picks, that will likely be between 23 and 32 for someone like Marner, so no problem! Players drafted that late tend to not pan out more than they do so I'd rather have the proven guy for those 4 years, then potential prospects who are more likely to bust.

Haha, gotta say, the "Marner will never sign it" line is becoming comical. Keep low-balling him and you'll see how fast he'll sign an offer sheet when someone offers him what he's looking for. And at anything over 9 million, the Leafs physically CAN NOT match without severely impacting their team further... not sure what about this common sense Leafs fans can't get.

Leafs have 6 million in available CAP for next year right now. If the CAP goes up another 3m that's only 9m you have available to spend... and you'd still have to sign 6 more players AFTER Marner. There is a reason Dubas is working hard to move Kadri, Marleau AND Zaitsev... it's because he knows he can't Match a legitimate offer sheet to Marner under the Leafs current CAP situation.... sheesh.

I'm not sure the Leafs match. Not sure if Marner signs the offer sheet either. He might sign for the Leafs for less. Leafs don't necessarily lose either. They have those four picks and the the 10m they have allotted for Marner to spend on some other players.
If Lee decides not to accept 7m from Isles....I wonder who is offering more? Lee seems to be a good situation with Isles, you would think it would have to be about 8m to sway him to leave.
Leafs are about over the cap by about 6.75m if they sign their RFAs to reasonable contracts. It's not factual that they HAVE to trade Kadri, Marleau and Zaitsev to be cap compliant.

I agree, I'd love to keep Lee on the Island, but not for 7 years. Everything I've read so far says Lee is holding firm to his demand for 7 years and feels he can easily get that on the open market. If he doesn't come down from that demand, he's gonna walk... Lou won't go 7, he doesn't even want to go 6.

As for Marner, again, if Marner continues to demand 11m and the leaves keep offering 8-9m and some team comes in with an 11m offer sheet Marner will sign it, if the Leafs won't match it. He's already on the record saying he won't take a "home boy discount" to stay with Toronto.

I think he will take hometown discount. But what is the tipping point? Think about 10m is about his price. Then we also. get into the discussion on whether any team want to overpay Marner at 11m....The third highest player in the league and lose the picks too. That's pricey.
Even if the lose Marner to that offer sheet of 11m the Leafs still win "the trade". Tavares and the four picks for Marner.(even if Marner signs with other team).
No one knows how Marner truly feels. Of course his agent who wants the best deal will say publicly "no hometown discount".

To quote a GENIUS, "We can, and we will."

LOL... okay, good luck with that when you physically CAN'T. And if by some miracle Dubas is able to move all three of those contracts prior to July 1st and does match an offer sheet of 11m, good luck enjoying another 1st round exit since you'll have NO defense... again.

Again, there is a REASON he's trying to move those guys AND get the Marner contract done prior to July 1st... even he knows someone is going to offer sheet Marner and the Leafs won't be able to match... but keep being delusional about what the rest of the NHL knows to be true.

I think it's pretty obvious how Marner feels. If he was truly willing to take a "home town discount" he'd have signed already. Also, I'm pretty sure (thought I could be wrong here) it was Marner himself who was quoted as saying he wouldn't take a discount to stay with Toronto, not his agent. But regardless, the fact that he hasn't already signed and if he continues to go unsigned as we get closer to June 26th and July 1st speaks volumes towards Marners true feelings.

We Isles fans went through this with JT last year... he kept saying he wanted to stay on Long Island. But the closer it got to July 1st, the more you began to realize he could walk.

On your other point, Isles had their best season in a long time without JT. I also find it very fitting that of all the teams JT interviewed with (NYI, TOR, STL, SJ and BOS) the one team he chose was eliminated in the 1st round, while the 4 other teams all advanced on...

I mean I'm playing with you a bit here, but a) remember you can go over the cap in the summer by 10% (which means the Leafs really have 90mil to work with until October). Leafs currently have about 8.8 mil in cap space but you're right, they need to resign 3 good players. If Marner takes 11, that puts them in tight.

Trading Connor Brown is almost for sure. Taking a pick back (or AHL prospect) puts cap space at almost 11 (10.9 for my count). Still not perfect. But, now you're barely eating into your 10% overage, so you can sign AJ and/or Kap. Then they can make a few moves to be cap compliant. I honestly think if they make a move to add a lot to the RD position it will be at the deadline (when picks are the currency, its easier for teams to retain and salary cap implications are lessened).

The reason I'm kind of messing with you is because this narrative of OMG THE LEAFS ARE TOTALLY SCREWED THEY WILL LOSE EVERYONE THEY WILL NEVER WIN TOO MUCH MONEY!!!!!!!!!! Is nuts. GM's get paid to deal with these situations and Toronto management has been excellent at this. Worst case, they package a high pick to move a salary they don't want. That's WORST case. Zaitsev has value as a player, Kadri has a lot of value, and Marleau's cap hit can be valuable to teams. Is it tough? Yes. Will they have to earn their money to make it happen? Yes. But don't tell me they are screwed and it's over and they have no chance. Try to have some logic.

And remember that the new Isles GM everybody loves so much is the one that signed Leafs players to these contracts they need to shed right now, before you get too high and mighty.

I am well aware that is was Lou who was the GM in TOR before Dubas, but lets be real here... the real reason the Leafs are in a CAP crunch is because Dubas went after Tavares (When they didn't really need him) and signed Matthews to 11.6m per year and now he has put himself in a position where that 11m for JT could have easily been given to Marner and the Leafs would still have room to sign their other RFA's. Did he give out some bad deals, sure.. the Zaitsev deal shouldn't have been 7 years and the Marleau deal should have probably only been 2 years, not 3... But it's the JT deal that has the Leafs where they are now.

And I realize teams can spend over, but it also then makes it more difficult to get under the CAP once you're already over it. All you end up doing at that point is trading away valuable pieces for less than they are worth. That's exactly the situation that got the Isles Leddy and Boychuk... they were sold for pennies on the dollar because Chicago and Boston were both in serious CAP issues and had no other choice.

And I'm not saying this as a bitter Isles fan who wants to exact revenge on the Leafs. I'm actually one of the few who is glad to see Tavares gone, as I always felt his superstar attitude always held this team back and I don't believe he would have fit well under Trotz' defense and team first coaching style. Now, would I have rather gotten something for Tavares instead of losing him for nothing, absolutely, but the Isles, as a team, are far better without him. In a year where EVERYONE had them fighting for the #1 overall pick, they had one of their best seasons and they did it without a Superstar (Barzal just isn't there yet).

You seem like a nice guy, but saying that the Isles are "far better without [John Tavares]" is kind of nuts.

The Leafs won't need to giveaway players like Leddy and Boychuk. It could just be taking poor returns for a guy like Zaitsev. They can also LTIR Hyman and Dermott for the start of the season to increase flexibility. At least we can meet halfway and say that it isn't impossible, just difficult.

How is it nuts? The team literally did a complete turn around in their first season without him. They finished 2nd in the Metro, decreased their goals allowed by 100 goals and swept Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoffs AND the ENTIRE team bought into the "you play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back" mantra... No way Tavares buys into that logic or adapts to Trotz' system.

If you look at 17-18 compared to 18-19, they were literally a far better team in every aspect without Tavares. I'd almost guarantee that if Tavares stayed with the Isles they would not have been as good as they were last year and probably wouldn't have made the playoffs.

By the way, "taking poor returns for players" is the definition of giving players away and that's exactly what happened with Leddy and Boychuk. CHI and BOS had to take significantly less value for those players because they HAD to move them to get under the CAP... thus they gave them away.