Except Toronto hasn't won anything in decades, so why would they take a discount then?

Why would AZ trade from their weakness to add to their strengths?

I was going to say, winning does not equal 1st round exits

Why would the lower paid players take a discount when the "leaders" on the team didn't?

Players are not motivated to do this unless they have already made their money - see Spezza. If they take a discount on a short term, and say, get injured, get sick etc. they have just absolutely blown their shot at a comfortable life after they finish playing.
They'll take their value, or as close as they can get.

Why should those players take discounts when the top players didn't take discounts?

wait. What leader didn't take a discount? Tavares rejected 13mil. Nylander's contract looks pretty sweet right now. Matthews is a byng candidate and in the rocket richard race. Marner is overpaid by like 1.8mil. But he is a superstar so I don't mind it. So whats your point?

@villenash same thing
@Canucks_Fan_53 same thing

past would show that Toronto does not give discounts..... nobody has taken a discount on that team so far.... if your top 6 core won't take a discount to win, why should your bottom 6?

Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, MacKinnon that's what a leader discount looks like

Tavares is not worth over 11m
So paying him 13m would have been an overpayment either way

i'm not saying their overpaid... they just didn't take a discount, so see question #1, if they didn't why should the rest of the team.
and i'm not sold on the fact that Tavares rejected 13 mil, i don't think it was ever offered.... i think the only people who could ask for more money than McDavid is Draisaitl, and maybe Kucherov too

Except none of those contracts were discounts, they were fair value deals at the time they were signed.

Everyone thought the Draisaitl contract was an overpayment. Then he started putting up 100 point seasons.

I think the Leafs are shipping out one of their forwards in the 3M range to make room for Mik and Dermott. Spezza is the only guy that will take league minimum, the other guys may end up taking a smaller 1 year deal.

so this is what the twitter post was based off of lol. i mean just look at production per value. tavares is the 7th highest paid player based on aav. he ranked 38th in point production this year. Marner is 8th highest paid and ranks as 19th in points, matthews is 3rd in contract value, ranks 9th in points. when you do ppg: tavares is 36th, marner is 17th and matthews is 16th. you are paying for production. you didnt however get a discount on any of the 3 players... when you bring up nylander... hes 42nd in points 54th in ppg. hes 52nd in true aav. these lists include defensemen and goalies... but like i wouldnt call any of those 4 a discount.