What if the Leafs didn't pay Tavares and address their needs with Matthews and Kadri as their top centers?

You could probably add Pietrangelo to that team and I’d say they’re much better than the other way around

You've conveniently left out the factor that th Leafs had Barrie as dman for one season. Plus the team wouldn't be in worse cap with Kadri 4.5m though better at centre.

as a die hard leaf fan i agree tavares shoudnt of signed here kadri is a gret 2nd liner at a good contract

Then Tavares would be a Hab or remain an Islander

Getting UFA Tavares wasn't the problem. Paying RFAs Matthews, Marner and Nylander collectively 4.5m too high for the term they signed for. Of course all teams expected a an additional 4.5m in cap this season.

he chose to meet with 5/6 teams or whatever it was, if he was willing to meet with all 31, all 31 would have met with him.

More proof that Kadri needed to be moved. 20 man roster and 300k. Kadri deserves better than 3c and having him there was taking time away from Matthews and Tavares. Kerfoot is a perfect 3c to me.

In my eyes the inly mistake was giving marner that much money. I am fine with the Nylander, Matthews and Tavares cntracts. Marner should be1-2m less. Is that 1-2m a back breaker, no.

hot take but but holl at 2 and engvall at 1.25 are worse than marner at 10.893

It may as well read, "redraw the lottery with my numbers instead".

Stop living in the past. What's done is done. Move on.

Holl at 2m to play in the top 4... that contract is solid. Signing engvall for 1.25m I feel was a bit pricey. I think they had different plans for him before the flat cap though. Think he was going to be part of a shutdown third line.

thing is holl truly isnt a top 4

I’ve got news for you... he truly is. I live in reality and over here Holl plays in the top 4 and out played both ceci and Barrie last year. Was out on the ice for top line assignments. And before you have a chance to say “bUt MuZzIn” why did a Rielly/muzzin and Barrie/muzzin both fail? No one is saying Holl is a superstar, but he is a capable defender with good numbers playing against top lines. For 2m that is a bargain.

in your home country of reality you should be able to easily realize hes only effective with muzzin, him and dermott were awful when they played with eachother at times, capable isnt the most assuring word you wanna hear as an adjective, that combined money of holl and engvall could have been used on a guy like demelo or maybe we could have even tried to put something together for cernak but we cant, both those guys are better than holl, dont try to say otherwise

Holl and engvall together make 3.25m you minus 700k for the replacement player (best case scenario) and you are left with 2.5m. Who are you getting for 2.5m?

I also thought Dermott and Holl were fine together. Our issue in the play in was certainly not defence.

You have a narrative that you are trying to push but the facts are getting in your way. I see a ton of this with leafs fans. Not trying to centre you out by yourself.

Facts ☝️☝️☝️

I don't why so many are down on Holl. Maybe because folks just go by "names" and salaries of players and that is how they rank players.
IMO Holl was the best RHD the Leafs had last season and Leafs third best Dman.
Not top 4? Where is that logic. He played 20 minutes a game, heavy minutes, killed penalties and was a plus player.