Joined: Aug. 2018
Posts: 6,336
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If WASH is dumping or buying out Mantha, they are doing it for cap space, saves them very little for a player who never plays.
Mittelstadt had his best year yet, Liljegren didn;t even get dresssed for half the playoffs, the difference between them is more than a 5th.
Moldenhauer and Voit are good prospects, on a team short of good prospects, but both are not high level and debateable if they are upper midlevel. But for Hanifan? Thats probably what it takes. And Robertson probably doesnt even have the value of these lesser known commodities, (because his career has started out as such a car crash. He could still be good, but his size isnt going to change, and due to his fragility and lack of production so far, I dont think he carries enough value to anyone but TOR).
But taking on over 13mil in expiring UFAs? Seems desperate at best, and think about the timing....
The timing: The Leafs again have a really good regular season, even though robertson probably is not a good 1RW, Holmberg is just an okay 3rd liner, you're shoved against the cap again, and the defense with aging brodie, Giordano, and schenn is looking fragile, and have to move a bit of draft capitol or prospects at TDL (of which they have little already), because they can't/won't trade anyone with good value because that defeats the purpose of going for the cup, they go into the post season and lose. Suddenly you've got Matthews, Nylander, Mantha, Brodie, Giordano, Mittlestadt, Robertson, Lafferty and Hanifan all hitting UFA, thats 5 of your top 8 forwards, (with the other 3 expiring the following year), your top defensive pairing, and all the while you have few ELC and picks to replace any of those guys... And the only guys with real value trade, (Matthews, Nylander, Mittelstadt) its only their unsigned rights you're dealing.
Maybe this doesn;t happen, sure, but by adding just UFAs and trying one last shot with the same group and a bunch of UFAs, and getting lesser value back on your commodities because you can only trade their rights, when you have few prospects or picks to replace them, you might be setting up a pretty mediocre team just waiting for high draft picks in 2027-2031, because their 2023-2026 picks are weak at best. with only 3 in the first 4 rounds 2023-2025, just 3 in 2026 minus whatever you deal at the 2024 TDL, which wont be the players you're trying to win the cup with.