Quoting: Leafsleaks123
Well my original point was he's a perfect fit for the leafs and his name was out there a couple weeks ago and if you said before the offseason the leafs would be able resign Muzzin, Holl, Dermott, and Mikheyev and add Brodie for as cheap as they did I'd say no way. So IMO Dubas could make it work but since Arizona is making the playoffs Garland isn't going anywhere
Yes, but they turned over 1/3 of the roster if not more last off-season. After turning over a good chunk of the roster the previous year, and the year before that.
At some point, if a team finds the right mix of players then I'm sure they would prefer having 1 maybe 2 pressing issues each summer and come back with 80%+ of a team that had success in the prior year.
Sure they could get a Garland and give him a 500% raise (min.), and re-sign Hyman but it means another summer of showing several players the door (and not just the Thorntons and the Bogos, some guys making $$ would have to leave), which doesn't do much for consistency year over year. And it certainly doesn't help with the depth on the team (every top 6 fwd in that scenario would be $4Mish or over).
Even without factoring in a Garland, the Leafs will be tight to re-sign both Hyman and Rielly over the next couple years, while having competent goaltending.
The Leafs seem like fairly legit contenders to me, wouldn't it be nice to just make moves around the edges each off-season rather then re-invent the wheel each time?
Furthermore, why spend those assets on a Garland when Robertson is knocking on the door? They aren't the exact same player, but they've got some similarities, and what helps this team more in the next few years? Garland at $4M+ putting up 60+ pts, or Robertson at less than $1M putting up 40ish pts, and putting that $3M to use elsewhere on the roster? And before you say well no guarantee on Robertson. He's way more of a sure thing than Garland was at the same age. IMO, his ceiling is just as high.