So Tavares or Matthews goes down in the playoffs again. Who plays in a top 2 c scoring roll?

Galchenyuk probably. I know thats not to good but because they are making so much that's the risk you take

With the cap space the have they will be able to accrue a decent amount for a deadline pickup, which is exactly what I expect them to do. Kampf can service as 3c make a deadline pickup for a C/LW with good faceoff% and offensive ability and leave him on 2nd or 3rd line left wing and if a center gets injured he fills the void.

You're better off keeping Kerfoot on the wing and having him play C if needed. Hence why giving up kerfoot is a bad idea without a replacement

So essentially trade kerfoot for no reason then trade for him back at the deadline? (I realize he isn't great in the dot, but otherwise that is exactly him).

SJ would certainly accept that, Gambrell probably won’t be anything more than a 4C.

No I'm not advocating the kerfoot trade.

https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/2682883

I would rather keep Kerfoot. All those guys could play top 6, but there are varying degrees of uncertainty with that. Kerfoot has the versatility and the ability to play up and down the lineup. I also don't ever see the need for the leafs to run a 23 man roster. Their roster at home will probably be 20 man, and maybe 22 on the road. Maybe they have to move a Mikheyev. But I think with the recent signings the leafs probably did not leave as much cap space for accruement as they previously expected/wanted to.