Sure call it what you want.. I do have some responses to your comment though..

Firstly, neither you or I have any knowledge of whether teams have reached out regarding Muzzin, so relax.

Secondly, every report I read regarding McDonagh said Tampa had canvased a few teams and got a commitment from Columbus to claim him on waivers should they waive him (Tampa inquired not Columbus) and then they made a trade with Nashville (again, Tampa inquired).

Muzzin is still a good defenseman in this league and the leaf's will happily keep him if they are unable to move him for assets. They are under the cap with a full roster, so they just need to move someone of equal value to Sandin once he signs. Holl would also be enough based on the expected contract Sandin will get.

They have a 20 man roster that is under the cap, and Sandin isnt going to be making $5M a year.. If this is your criticism of the Leafs then they are doing pretty good..

Every single team in the league would make room for Marner at his Salary.. to say his contract would be tough to move is crazy..

You say "You rarely win with a winger as your top star" meanwhile you have Kucherov, Ovechkin and Kane who have been the top stars on 5 of the last 10 cup winners...

You are clearly blinded by your Leafs hate.

Also,
The leafs will happily keep Muzzin and move Holl instead if Muzzin doesnt return assets. He is still a quality top 4 defensman and only has 2 years left on his deal. The leaf's don't need a ton of cap space and have multiple options of obtaining it.

Tavares is literally producing the same as he has essentially his whole career. He has always been roughly a point per game player. Is he overpaid? Probably slightly, but he would still fetch $8M-9M on a 3 year deal if he was a UFA today. Again, most teams would give assets if he was available.

Hello Mr. Dubas, it’s (insert GM). I’d love to talk to you about Jake Muzzin. I know he is 33, and carries a 5.6 million cap hit for not one, but two more years. I also know in each of the last 3 seasons he has missed around 30 games each year. He was a -6 last year on a top team, but we don’t mind since +\- isn’t the only indicator, and he is almost always a plus player. But we here in (insert city) think he is a valuable piece missing for us. He is going to…..

(Contender): be a grizzled veteran and help us get over the hump and win a cup? Be the shutdown force for our deep run? Be the experienced voice in the locker room while eating minutes in bottom four? Bolster our special teams?

(Rebuilder): be a mentor for our young players and prospects? Be a big time contributor on a lackluster team that you can flip later (if he accepts terms)? A warm body to get you to the cap floor?

You know teams have 23-man rosters right? Cause of injuries and stuff? This isn’t franchise mode. Their 20-man roster is right at the cap and they’ll be screwed the moment someone goes down with an injury.

Could also criticize their goalie situation but that’s irrelevant here.

I agree with this, just your comment about muzzin’s injury history is incorrect. 2019-20 the leafs played 70 games and 2020-21 they played 56 games, so he missed 17 in 19-20 and 3 in 20-21.

Thank you for that correction! My apologies, and I will definitely amend that statement from "he has missed a lot of time in recent years" to "we understand he did suffer an injury last year, but he made it back for playoffs and didn't skip a beat, so as long as nothing is lingering it is not a cause for concern."

You can’t just magically make cap room appear. So while teams would love marner , is it worth destroying your depth for him?

As for the wingers, few arguments: all three of those wingers won hart trophies so they are a level above marner. Also let’s look at the team around them: hawks, really the only true exception so I won’t go over them Capitals, ovechkin best player but they never got over the hump until they had two top centers, prior to that they were out round 2 or less every year. Tampa: one, vas is their best player, he just is. And they had comparable stars at c and d. So really outside of Chicago you needed the c and/or d to win the cups. Pens: malkin Crosby, wings: datsyuk, zetterberg, lidstrom. Bruins: Bergeron, krejci, chara, Thomas. Kings:kopitar, doughty, quick. I mean we can go back to the 50s, there are teams that have won with maybe a very good w, but the almost always had better or comparable stars at c,d, and g. But there’s many examples where they had clear stars at the other three positions and the w was maybe their 5th best player.

Make an acgm where marner gets fair value, and it doesn’t gut the teams depth/assets acquiring him to make the cap fit.

Firstly, I was mostly making a point about how wingers absolutely can be the top stars on teams. It wasn't necessarily to say Marner specifically is able to be the top star of a cup winning team, although I do think he is personally.

Ovi is the only one who won a Hart earlier in his Career than Marner is currently. Kane won his at 27 and Kucherov at 25, meanwhile Marner is 25 and is definately within the realm of winning a Hart if the stars aline (one thing going against him is that Marner success will usually equal Matthews success). I wouldnt say that Marner is a tier below those guys just because he hasnt won a Hart. FYI, he has averaged 102 points per 82 games since his ELC. Kane averaged

In terms of the team around them, it doesnt matter what position the best player is since you need a well rounded team to win in the NHL. You show me a good cup winning team and I will show you a good C and W pairing. Mackinnon/Raantanen, Stamkos/Kucherov, Backstrom/Ovi, even Toews/Kane.. The only exception I can think of is Crosby tbh.

I think something that I should say as well is that sometimes a high end winger will make a good center look great. A final point I will make too, is that I purposely left out that defense isnt important. Defense is by far the most important thing in winning cups imo. I think this can be seen by the Cs you listed that didnt really have elite wingers. Datsyuk/Zetterberg, Crosby, Bergeron, O'Reilly.. They are all defensive centers. The teams that did have elite wingers also had elite defensmen to compensate. Kucherov/Hedman, Kane/Keith, Ovi/Carlson to an extent..

When I say that any team would make room for Marner, he is a top 10 player in the league so most teams getting him would be sending back their best player. No need to make cap room. In hindsight, I will revise my statment, since after thinking about it Edmonton is probably the only team that would not be interested in a Marner trade. So 30/31 teams would be happy to trade for Marner if he were available.