Team: 2020-21 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 26, 2020

Published: Sep. 26, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

This is going to make Florida fans MAD, but I don't really care otherwise. My aim was to solve Toronto's RD issues by acquiring a cost controlled 2-way RD from a team which had a surplus available; this ended up being Florida's Mackenzie Weegar. Seeing their significant lack of depth on the left side, and their lack of solid top 6 options I believed that they would be interested in the RFA rights to Travis Dermott as a 2/3LD option, and Zach Hyman as a top 6 forward with draft capital to ensure they were net winners in the trade. My deal with Weegar would be a 5x5 with M-NTC (10 Team No-Trade list), some risk to the organization if he breaks himself however it is mitigated. a Rielly-Weegar pairing would bring out the best of both of them, providing Rielly with a good partner (which has historically never had), and giving Weegar a top pair role. Otherwise I felt the defense was fine. Holl has handled a shutdown role very well with Muzzin (86th percentile in TOI vs Elite, and 8th percentile in O-Zone starts), and Lehtonen is a dark horse to be a really strong option on third pair, and gives Liljegren another season to refine his game. Mikheyev would receive a 2.35x3 or a 2x2 imo, and I opted for the former as it was more valuable long term. I didn't like the options for goaltending, and trust Andersen's ability to bounce back. It may cost in terms of assets I would have gotten, but I feel this is a safer bet.

Lmk what you think (Florida fans can chill tho you got a new GM).