Strome will never sign for $2M....way too many teams will offer him $1.5m to $2M more.

Possibly. I'm not sure why Chicago isn't qualifying him if that is the case.

I think Toronto may look to move kerfoot and offer more money to strome. Or just sign a cheaper ufa.

Dylan Strome? A soft and lazy player added to the Leafs

1) He's 25, doesn't fit the rebuild timeline. 2) His QO is $3.6M and he's arbitration eligible and if he goes to arbitration, he gets $5M give or take $500K.

That's why they are unlikely to qualify him, otherwise they would probably sign and trade him at the TDL. He's not signing for $2M though...that would be absolutely stupid on he and his agent's part to go from $3.3M to $2M...he's a bargain at $3.3m

Not lazy, a bit soft yes but not lazy

He had less hits than Nylander (embarrassing)

Yes, I said a bit soft but that's not being lazy. His game is built around high IQ, great hands, great passing...he doesn't play a physical game other then planting himself in front of the net

Excellent defensively. Slow but hard working. Certainly soft.

He's not very good defensively, not terrible but not very good and the main reason is, he doesn't have the speed to play a 2 way game. He's great in the offensive zone though, but he needs to be sheltered with a defensive winger on his line. Obviously Kampf and Kerfoot provide that coverage and let's Strome not get too deep into the D zone. The problem is, Strome needs a scorer to play with or it's a waste to bring him in.

I feel like he will be expensive and isn't what we need. He's not a complementary piece to the 2nd line

There is no "complimentary piece" coming. Deal with it.

Strome needs to be in a top 6 center role, and unless the Leafs want to move JT to the left wing (which is probably a bad idea) then no need for Strome.

I like his play in the defensive zone. Have no problem with him starting his shifts there since improving his face offs. But yes, I'm not expecting him to track anyone down on the back check lol.

He improved in all phases of the game so much this season. You could tell, he read some reports that people thought he was lazy (he's not) and worked his butt off over the summer. It was also reported that during training camp and even before the start, he showed up early every day and Kane and he were playing the 2nd half of the summer along with only a couple other guys.

Yah, there is no complimentary piece since the Leafs are throwing $40M to 4 players

Of course. But if you move them you need more voices and complimentary pieces. Fantastic season by the leafs. No need to change much.