Not really. Even if the cap is 88.5m, can't the Leafs have a proper 22 man roster?
Jarnkrok isn't on LTIR. You've really overpaid Nylander in $$$ and term. Highly unlikely current juniors Minten and Cowan make the team. No thanks to six years of Pesce though some team might.

Don’t think Brodie gets that much

And yeah cap is only projected to go up to 87.7

Honestly though making a Leafs team with and without an extended Willy man the benefits to move on in terms of roster construction make it tempting

Put Jarnkrok there as I think he may get moved, not really sure what's happening with him this season.
8x9.1M is a good deal for Nylander, bad take
If you've watched Minten and Cowan at all, you'd know that they'll be challenging for top 9 minutes next season easily.

Yeah, I've watched Minten and Cowan. Gee you should know playing pre season games against juniors and AHLer isn't a good indication of immediate NHL readiness. It would defy odds that two players who will be playing in junior this year will be NHL ready next season.

It would defy odds but isn't it about time the Leafs got a couple of these prospects to be contributors without sitting in the minors for 3-5 years? Other teams seem to do it. They've played well against NHL competition (albeit true NHL players aren't going 110% as they are). These kids are good and have a distinct possibility of making the team next year out of training camp.

Who is scoring his 40 goals if you move on?

With any luck the 40 goals will be spread out to other players so we dont got to rely on 4 guys to get all our goals


As with the 10m saved you can then go out and fix up some areas of weakness and further increase depth.

We saw it in the FLA series when the big 4 dont perform team goes no where. And what would potentially make it worse is further committing to them sacrificing the ability to add good depth.

Thanks to the Leafs management in the 20 years, Leafs have traded away many high end draft picks, which is one reason the Leafs don't have many draftees on their team. I'll disagree with you that teams allow players to sit in the minors for 3-5 years in the minors, if they are NHL ready earlier.

Just a note on 2020 draft.....So that is three full seasons, ago,,,2020/2021, 21/22, 22/23. Just 13 players drafted then could be considered NHL regulars....none of drafted below 10th in the second round (where Minten was drafted) were NHL regulars. 52 players saw NHL action. Just saying to expect a 2022 draftee Minten to in be top 12 regular in 24/25 defies odd.
2021 draft....two full seasons ago. Just 9 players are NHL regulars and 19 have seen NHL action., So again to expect Cowan to be NHL ready just two years after being drafted defies odds.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the extra 9-10M but with Tavares aging out, you'd probably want at least 3 stars up front. It's a cap crunch this year then you get $11M.

Even with the free'd cap Buffalo, Detroit, and Ottawa are gonna get better and Tampa will always be a threat making it harder to win cup or go further with multiple double digit guys. As other than us no other team is paying 3 or soon 4 guys 10+mill cap hits each.

Even with JT free'd Marner will eat up at least 12.5-13m then were gonna have to find a new 2c which wont be cheap and other guys. Basically not worth it to put so much strain when they have a chance at some real change. Change that could help them win it all.

In the end it all comes down to playoffs this year. If they dont go further then you need to explore significant change and not just to the depth. If they go to the Semi's or win then you lean towards keeping everyone.

Cause lets be real Willy at 10m is nice but in this day and age dividing that 10m into 2 players like Debrusk and Demelo is not a bad idea either. Improve the Dcore while not losing to many goals in the process.