Quoting: justaBoss
Or keep the potentially 100 point winger and move the third liners.
So you won't get a top 2 d-man because:
1-not enough cap room
2-not enough value in a trade
Look at every cup winners since like 2010, 2 of their 5 key players were d-men
2010: KEITH, Kane, Toews, Hossa, SEABROOK
2011: CHARA, Bergeron, SEIDENBERG, Thomas and another forward
2012: DOUGHTY, VOYNOV, Quick, Kopitar and Carter
2013: KEITH, SEABROOK, Kane, Crawford and Toews
2014: DOUGHTY, VOYNOV, Kopitar, Quick and Carter
2015: KEITH, SEABROOK, Toews, Kane and Crawford
2016 and 2017: exceptions, only one of the 5 was a d-man, but this is possible when you've got Crosby
2018: CARLSON, ORLOV, Holtby, OVI and Kuz
2019: PIETRANGELO, PARAYKO, ROR, Tarasenko and Binnington
Look, TOR needs to realize that they're not doing things the proper way. They have no Crosby or anyone even remotely close to him. They have to get another d-man asap and the only way to free up enough cap room to acquire that d-man and keep a nice depth and to have enough trade value is Marner