Team: 2023-24 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 11, 2023

Published: Jun. 11, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

You are Brad Treliving.

You just finished eating a nice pizza from your daddy's restaurant when you get the call, you are now the GM of the Leafs.

What do you do?

Well first I self reflect and realize I am the leagues worst GM at contract negotiations and the biggest part of my job is negotiating the Matthews deal so I go hire Doaner to take care of the for me.

He tells me Matthews is resigning $14M AAV for 3 years. So now I know that I can continue to build a team to win now!

Before the draft I take care of some business and bring back Luke Schenn. It's a long-term deal, he has a young family, wants to stay in one place and we can always use his leadership with the Marlies as he ages.

Now as we get to the draft my goal is to make the defense bigger and stronger. I like guys who can clear the net and move the puck, they are more valuable than the skilled guys.

My old team has a surplus of those guys so I move a promising young D for an older one that fits my style.

I still have one young D who fits that profile and I want to move. He has high potential and could fit into a younger core. So I move him to a team retooling around younger guys in exchange a young but lower potential d who plays my style and a pick.

At the draft, Dubas decides he wants some familiar guys in his lineup so I move two of his guys for a couple late picks.

Now, I want to build a secondary core upfront behind the big guys, some younger blood on a kids line that can make a real impact. LA didn't want to pay two 1sts plus for Hart and I feel Samsonov who was the #1 goalie in sv% in high danger chances and top 10 in almost all league stats in expendable. We need to give Woll the net. So I'm willing to move this asset, market has been set at 2 1sts + by philly so he has lots of trade value. I'm also not sure it makes sense to resign Nylander long-term at 8M+ so he has to go.

Now that I have that young core I need to find someone to play with Tavares on the 2nd line, my plan is to get O'Reilly back.

Before free agency I fill out the 4th line with returning players

Now I have about $8M going into free agency to find a #1 LW, shutdown D and backup goalie.

Upfront I go back to something familiar. In net I go with a veteran. On D I grab a big body.

This leaves me enough cap space to cover any Class A bonuses and still make some moves.

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