Team: 2017-18 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: May 10, 2017

Published: May 10, 2017

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

So reason for all this mess. First, Bozak if a good centre and we would be selling high right now. Long term he doesn't fit so by signing Thornton, we get a much better player at slightly more that can mentor Matthews, Marner, Nylander and even Kadri. We get 2 2nds for Bozak which is mainly because of his cheap contract and columbus' need for centres.

Next we can look for some cheap LW options. Duclair has fallen out of favour in Arizona and acquiring him wouldn't take that much. He could develop really well on a line with Thornton and Marner who can mentor him while also setting him up for goals.

JVR is our biggest trade chip which we can flip for a first, a second and a prospect. Now it may seem like a lot but given the depth of the draft I believe it is a fair ask. Especially considering the salary retention.

Marchenko, Marincin, Martin and Live don't look to me like they have a future in Toronto. We can flip em for picks and prospects. We end up having to take Halak but he could suffice as a backup for a year and we have the cap space.

We can then use Komarov and our first (plus maybe a prospect like timashov) to move up in this years draft and snag Liljegren and really shore up the Defense. And the last trade is essentially to get rid of Carrick and Soshnikov. Both can play just we don't need them so we get a decent prospect in return but really I wouldn't care much if it was a lower prospect, main idea is to trade them to a rebuilding team for a pick or a prospect.

Long term, our centres could be Matthews, Nylander, Kadri, Gauthier. LW are Duclair, Grundstrom, Rychel, Hyman . RW are Marner, Kapenen, Bracco, Brown

Defense is more along the lines of get as many prospects and let them develop. A top four of Rielly, liljegren, Gardiner, Zaitsev is strong enough to compete and if any of the others (Dermott, Pulock, Neilson, Pokka) develop well, we could essentially have 6-8 different defensman that would be #2-3's on other teams similar to Pittsburgh right now.

I get our LW is weak but we have another first rounder where we can grab someone late like a Comtois or Vaselainen who are high risk but high potential LW prospects. We really only need on star LW and we would be set in every single position for the next decade.

Also I included a 5th line and a 4th pairing for the first callus incase of injuries of trades!!

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