Why in the world would the leafs do that?

Honestly I’d take that for Hertl, burn it all to the ground

To clear 750,000 in cap space

so they make their defence much much worse so they can clear an incredibly easy to clear amount of cap space? That doesnt sound very smart

Avs can't afford Hertl going forward unless they plan on trading Girard in the offseason which, to be honest, is a choice they may be forced into making if they believe a 2C is what they really need. I doubt EJ has SJ on his list of teams he'd accept a trade to and the Avs likely wouldn't trade him anyhow but they probably don't need to since he'll be on LTIR shortly.

double post for edit

Hertl is not worth all that and he's not the center to chase I don't think.