Just curious. As a fan of an organisation that is not the Leafs do you see how this negatively affects the parity of the league and would fail to have the Leafs organisation held accountable for their contract decisions?

Nope.

Fair enough, what logic are Leafs fans using to rationalise a Lafreniere lottery win not negatively affecting parity?

What does this mean? Every team in this league has made poor contract decisions. How is singling out the Leafs addressing the contract issues league wide? Are you suggesting the Leafs are solely responsible for overpaying the top players on their team?

No, not entirely contracts have been bizarre over the last couple of years, and while the Leaf's recent signings havn't performed to their value other teams have similar mistakes on their roster.
It would lessen the argument that over-high contracts have a negative impact on the team overall, as Lafreniere projects to be elite and would allow the Leafs to really move out of a sticky situation.

How is that different from the some of the other teams eligible for the 1st overall? I would argue that teams like Minnesota, Edmonton and Pittsburgh are in the same boat as the Leafs. It seems you have more of an issue with the outcome of the lottery this year, rather than the teams that could win the 1st overall.

Oh it's not Leafs specific. But obviously my perspective is not of a team in line for the 1st pick. I'm curious as to how those teams' fans are feeling about this system.

Leafs got screwed when the salary cap was introduced. I couldn't care less about parity, I want my team to win. Simple as that. Leafs win, HRR goes up, teams get more money, salary cap goes up. Whats good for the Leafs is good for the league. They already keep half the small market teams in the league afloat with equalization payments.

oh ok, sorry i misunderstood. As a Leaf fan, I'm not a fan of the lottery system in general. Never have been. The thinking behind it makes sense, but we've seen enough of it now to know it doesn't always help the teams that truly need it.

No thanks.

I completely understand that if the Leafs win the lottery you would be ecstatic, as well you should. Lafreniere projects to be great. Would you feel that that would be a fair result, or would there be almost an element of guilt there?

Interesting, do you feel an increase in league revenue should be the aim, or is that a happy coincidence to the Leafs winning in your eyes?

No guilt at all. Why would I feel guilt because I benefited from a system that I didn't create or manipulate? This is the same system that preaches parity and takes form the big market teams to hand out to the small market teams. I'm not saying any of this is fair, but it is the system we are in. Love it or hate it, you cannot change the outcome. Guilt doesn't play into it.

My take on the matter. Contracts are for the regular season. Players do not get paid for the playoffs..., it shows on the leafs bench...

At the end of the day, this is that would be the product of parity in the leagues setup. Do you believe the NHL can only achieve parity by having small/lower reveue market teams succeed? Just trying to gauge where you draw the line when it comes to league parity?.

Understandable and interesting to know. Thank you

I'm not entirely sure how I would fix the system tbh. I am from the UK, so our major sports leagues, football for example don't buy into the idea of parity being important, theres no salary cap and the rich teams frequently win.
I'm interested because the ideas of a draft and maintaining parity seem very important to NA sports, but no league seems to have a system that achieves this well. As a Detroit fan this obviously stings because we were the worst team in the salary cap era, and ended up in that place as a result of building a team as the NHL would want, trying to make the playoffs even when it was not in the best interest of the team long term.

It's hard to know whether it is a lack of effort, but teams built by committee rather than on the backs of a few incredible players seem to run deeper in the playoffs with more regularity.

I agree with this. Yes, your playoff roster can only be made up of players on your regular season roster up to the trade deadline which has to adhere to the cap rules. So, making prudent signings is that much more important. However, the Leafs situation has nothing to do with who they paid how much, to me it's more of a overall personnel/philosophy issue. I like Dubas, but I think his team vision has got to evolve. He's tried loading up on skill, that isn't working. He needs to evolve his thinking on how this team is built or it could be his downfall.

On the subject of parity and cap structure, I'd be interested to see if the league had looked into changing the cap structure to be more fair for higher taxed cities. Such as, basing the cap hit of the salary on the players take home salary and subtracting the taxes. To me this would put all parties on an even playing field when it comes to negotiating contracts.