@pretzelcoatl see this roster. And I’ve added to our supply of draft picks

As usual, Gustavsson isn't available

Minnesota declines pretty easily, and Hanifin will likely be extended by whoever acquires him.

The 2m difference between Dougie and Hanifin is completely wasted by your overspending on the fourth line.

I went more expensive to limit term so we can afford Luke and Holtz extensions and remain flexible.

Now factor in between 3m and 5.5m in bonus overages in both of the next two seasons

In what world can Leafs afford to add a dman @ $9M per 🤦🏻. Just not going to happen

We’d be trading Toffoli in the deadline to limit overages this year (approximately 2 mill), and there’s space for next year.

How would keeping 9 mill dougie help us deal with the overages in this scenario?

I have no better way to say this, trading Toffoli is just stupid. We aren't sellers.

It's just unrealistic to trade Dougie and then sign Hanifin, and it's a really bad look for Fitz. Dougie is the better player regardless. Either way you'd have to bridge Mercer to make the cap hits work in 2025-26

We complain about Holtz getting buried. But there’s 9 spots in the top 9.

Haula, Holtz, Mercer, Hughes, Palat, Hischier, Bratt, Meier, McLeod, Toffoli

Mercer Bratt Meier Hughes Hischier are locks.
Haula and Palat have full trade protections.
Holtz is the guy we want to get INTO the top 9
McLeod has 100% earned all the minutes in the world.

That leaves Toffoli. If we don’t resign him I’d be more than happy to trade him to get a goalie or dman, or the assets to get one.

I wanted to sell one of Graves or Severson last deadline for a 1st. Imagine if we did that. Graves basically got pushed out of the playoff lineup anyway. Would have given us a lot more to play with now and the ability to easily

Severson Marino Siegs Luke Bahl Dougie ended up being the playoff lineup anyway.

If dougie were to waive there’d be nothing wrong with it. But he wouldn’t so it’s moot.

If I can get a 1st+ for a guy I’m gonna let walk anyway I’ll probably do it, especially at this point in our window. I like Toffoli but he’s a touch slow for our lineup

Also don’t think of it as selling toffoli. (Unless we’re out of it)

Think of it along the lines of a swap.

Like the Capitals did turning 1 year of Orlov into Sandin
Or the Canucks turning horvat into Hronek
Except with us it would be turning toffoli into Pettersson, or Ullmark, or Hanifin, or Byram, or Saros. A couple of those guys you’d have to add more but I’d argue a top 9 of

Jack Haula Bratt
Nico Palat Mercer
McLeod Holtz Meier
Lazar Bastian Smith (or some other depth if you like)
Siegs Hamilton
Hughes Nemec
________ Marino

Think about a potential swap like this
Toffoli 50% for 1st+3rd
Vanacek+1st+1st+3rd for Pettersson+Jarry.

We’ve lost 1 first round pick of draft capital in a swap like that and significantly improved our 2 biggest weaknesses.

Imagine if we’d trusted Luke last year and moved graves for a 1st at the deadline.

Then our playoff lineup rn with that swap would be:
The forwards as I stated

Hughes-Nemec
Pettersson-Marino
Siegs-Hamilton
Jarry in net

I think swapping toffoli for any of these guys (assuming Palat Timo and Jack are healthy at that time) would be beneficial to our team

Hart
Ullmark
Retained Gibson
Retained Markstrom
Knight
Jarry
Pettersson
Hanifin
Saros
Byram
Etc etc

Would help the devils as a team.

Jack and Nico lead very successful lines last with Tatar Mercer Haula and Bratt as their linemates.