Difficult at best, Nylander is the easiest to trade, but as he makes under 7mil, can you replace him and make the team better with just 7mil?

I dont know if you can trade an Auston Matthews. PERIOD. but at 11.6mil, thats alot of cap space to try and replace him. You could get 3 quality skaters for that cap space, easy.

The leafs have one of the weakest prospect pools in the league, so a replacement for any of the top 4 from within seems unlikely in the near future. Theres a case to be made for some sort of package involving a RFA guy like Matthew Tkachuk for Nylander or Matthews or Marner.

Nylander is interesting....hes the cheapest, still young, but is a lesser entity than the other 3. A package like Travis Koneckny and more (maybe Scott Laughton, or bluechip defensive prospect Cam York or Travis Sanheim, youngish nice number 3 dman) works financially and while nylander is the best player in that idea, maybe those two pieces help more than nylander alone.

I know they couldnt fit under the cap, but how much better would TOR look if they still had Kapanen, AJohnson and Gardiner hadn't petered out. But they dont have that depth due to cap restrictions of 4 big contracts. Instead its kind of bargain shopping (injury risk Kase, old man Thornton)/trading futures for Folignos.

Difficult because Muzzin is a year older, maybe Campbell/Mrazek are just quality backup goalies, reliant on guys like Bunting/Kase/Simmonds/Ritchie/Mikheyev/etc... to possibly be something they just arent, maybe theres just not enough talent in the bottom 6 forwards. Hard to say, but time is running out on the BIG FOUR to actually deliver more than just a playoff appearance.

LOL that is a terrible take. Are they in the top 10 no but 15th for sure: Kings, Ducks, Wings, Devils, Senators, Hurricanes, Rangers, Wild, Sabres, Stars, Predators, Oilers, Flyers, Jackets, Leafs.

Willie was the leafs best player last playoffs. But let's get it straight here, he was a ghost every other year. Maybe he's turned the corner but the leafs can't trade Tavares and Matthews and Marner are top 7 in league scoring and maybe the best duo in the league.

yeah i agree Nylander has the lowest cap and easiset to trade but what is the value?

I'd try to get a winger in the 4 million range or less that plays with grit. Greenway (min) Woods(NJ) for example. With the extra cap space, you then trade Kerfoot and try and get another power type forward. Between the 2 guys they make 9.6 million, you can get 2 power forwards for that amount. The leafs have very good star forwards but the role players couldn't out muscle a 90 year old. So if they have a unsuccess season beside Matthews, Marner and Tavares, every other forward should be gone. Also hopefully Sandin matures and there is more money after Rielly walks