This is loose, but not a joke

Forget the hype of Matthews winning the Calder. The Leafs were 5th in goals for, but 22nd in goals against as a team with good goaltending. There is major work to be done on D and about 2 top 4 prospects in the pipeline

This roster benefits from 'rookie mode ltir' where I made Marleau/Horton/Zaitsev disappear at no penalty, as I couldn't advance to 20/21.

I will say this. Ryan Ellis just got completely robbed on his current contract. He rightfully will get more than that.

This is the second time you have mentioned "waiting out Clarkson". You know he was traded a few years ago. Zaitsev on LTIR? There would be minimal cap relief for Marleau even he went on LTIR as he was plus 35 signing.
Kinda optimistic that Martin is now a 2nd liner. And you say it isn't a joke.

This really does seem like a joke. Kadri on the fourth line and Martin a second liner? Also, why would we pay some of these players 2mil plus? Kaskisuo really seems like he won't make it far, Woll will do that. I don't see the need to sign Biega or Prout, or why you LTIR'd Zaitsev and Marleau? If anything we'd try and trade Marleau since his contract is so heavily based on signing bonuses, and if Zaitsev doesn't fit then there'll be more than enough chances to trade him.
I don't see Ellis signing for anything under 6 and half when his contract is up, but we can't predict the future because he could tank and not be worth that in two years time.

To be honest I just don't see how these future rosters are helpful when we don't know how these players will be playing. What if Matthews, Marner AND Nylander have back to back 70 point seasons then they'll all ask for more than 10 million by that point. That also depends on how the cap rises or what happens with injuries. I get it can be helpful for judging whether we can afford someone added to the roster, but it's all just guess work at this point.

To get better, it won't be going from #5 in GF to #1.
The Leafs need better D, you will agree with that eventually once your excitement dies down. (Gardiner and Zaitsev are poor forwards more than they are good defence. Carrick's ceiling is 3rd pairing)

The quickest way to get D is by signing UFAs, so this roster put all energy into that.
But even with letting every veteran contract expire and then some... there's not a lot of cap room.

So this roster shows the Leafs need to make trades -- no matter how valuable X is -- you can't keep all your forwards because that blocks the path to improvement.

Don't see how Prout and Biega improve the defence which seemed to a goal. Marner and Komarov playing centre for the first time in the NHL. Hardly an improvement over the 2016/17 edition. To quote BStone,"This really does seem like a joke." Although I don't see the humour, I'll play along.