The NHL as a whole hates the offer sheet that's why you don't see it very often. Only desperate GMs use it.

The Leaf's are not that bad and are allowed to be 10% over the cap during the offseason and can easily move out a contact if/when needed.

kerfoot is as good as gone. he's the obviously 1st step. most of his salary is arleady paid so teams shouldn't charge an arm and a leg to take him.

The three names we are hearing most are Kerfoot, Holl and Muzzin.
The tough one is Muzzin. It comes down to his NTC. When healthy he is worth the money he is making so a return should be decent depending on where he is willing to go and what their cap situation is. Where does he go and what kind of return can the Leafs expect?
Another name worth noting here is William Nylander. He could garner a hefty return from the right dance partner. Any thoughts on this possibility?

1 Waive Muzzin and hope someone takes him. If not he plays for the Marlies

2 Trade Kerfoot for scraps. He’s worth more but no one will pay for him when they know we are screwed

3 Repeat step 2 with Holl

I’m thinking a team offers a 5th rounder and takes him. They can sell him at the deadline. Buy low sell high

There are a lot of teams in cap crunch right now, not just the leafs; obvi I look at this with leaf coloured glasses on but NHL has got to look at this system and make adjustments. It does no one (owners or the pa) any good to have to potentially send nhl caliber players through waiver wire and maybe to the minors to get compliant. Or for the bottom feeder teams (with cap space) to be able to hold competitive teams to ransom. Teams like Arizona receive a ton of money in revenue sharing (from teams like leafs & others)…so:
1/ we have to lose good players off our roster b/c Covid smashed the cap
2/ we have to add draft picks to “dump” our good players
3/ we have to give money to teams like Arizona (revenue sharing) so the can pay the good players & picks we had to trade to them

That’s the definition of a fk’d up system.

I think the other thing with Sandin is that he’s shown he can be good, maybe fantastic in the future- but he’s not had a long career so far. He’s gotten maybe a bit more than a season’s worth of games over three years and 28 career points - that’s not enough of a resume for an offer-sheet. Any team offer-sheeting him would have to wildly over-pay because the Leafs would just match anything under Kerfoot plus Holl less two replacement players (3.5+2 = 5.5 - 1.5 = 4 million) - and that’s if they decide not to move Muzzin.

Or smart ones.

If it was that easy to move out a contract (with a fair return) they would have done it already.