Edited Feb. 23, 2020 at 6:15 a.m.
Quoting: jpsnow13
Pyjama boy signing was a mistake.
TOR didnt need an offensive center, they already had 3. The overpayment on his contract set the bar for Matthews and Marner's big payday, forced the departure of caracter veterans (Marleau, Kadri, Hainsey) to get under the cap and limited the improvment of the defense (what should have been the first priority) .
The result is 2 big lines taking risks, no grit, no first round pick, a thin defense and a goalie left to himself.
Signing Tavares was the least of mistakes you listed, tho i couldnt agree more with the bolded text.
If Dubarelli would posses a pair, he wouldnt give Matthews and Marner 1,5M overpayment each ( or two years shorter Term, however you want to interprete it ), he should be flipping Barrie right away for a Top 2 Defensive D ( cause Barrie still was some high Tier trade chip ), also Kerfoot didnt really panned out as "C"...so all in all...3M extra money, Barrie, Kerfoot, Dermott, Holl ( 2M 3rd Pair 27y ), Hyman, Timashov and last Offseason available picks should be enough to bring in not one but two 6M Defensive Ds, so we are talking Ellis 6,25M cap hit here....
If franchise player is prepared to play for 2M less than SJS offered him, you take it....but after that you dont give same or more money with less Term to youngsters......