While I agree that was some wizardry to get more capspace via LTIR that bottom D pairing makes me laugh...

Not to mention carrying a roster of 20

hey guys is HFboards down for everyone?

Until Marner is signed to a reasonable contract by the Leafs....I'll delay the the "wizard" tag. Though I think Dubas has had a good off season. Ridding themselves of Zaitsev long term, ridding themselves of 6.25m Marleau and getting Barrie for a year.

They didnt create cap space though. They had 5.25 that is now filled with Clarkson, but will be free again when he goes on LTIR. They just transfered free cap space into LTIR cap space but got a 4th out of it

Agreed. But at this point I'd say that Marner has lost even more leverage and now there's a snowball's chance in hell he gets a penny over 10.55M aav. I mean it could happen I guess, but then we'd need to call Dreger a wizard..

They did create some cap space because of voodoo. Before, they could not reach the limit of the cap to use Hortons LTIR Effectively enough as it stands now. They would not have gotten the full 5.3Mil or whatever as releif. But Now, with Clarkson and horton they are over the cap, if Marner signs before the season starts, you can actually use up the whole contracts of both. If he holds out, you can sign the Shores and Spezza's to more money and get your cap hit to 81.49999 and use Horton and Clarksons full contract and get cap relief that way. THis also helps if marner goes into the season unsigned which was an issue and a leverage on his side before...