I'd way rather have Tavares than a bunch of overpaid washed up vets

Replace Thorton with a real third line centre, and replace Boyle with Clifford (same cap hit), this team will make it farther into the playoffs than what we have right now. While you're at it, replace Engvall with Robertson, and re-sign Mikheyev.

Im not a Leafs fan, so I don't know too much about the team. Just threw this together.

I would say no, they would not have been better going this route.

No, that defense isn't good enough to mitigate not having Tavares.

now if it's pietrangelo then that's a different story

i love tavares and i think he’s great in toronto but if we never signed him we’d be better off cap wise. or atleast didn’t give him a full ntc. trading him for defence could be the thing we need to be a legit contender instead of on the bubble of third and wildcard.