The salary cap was brought in to make an equal playing field for everyone. Teams in tax exempt states have a clear as day competitive advantage. I really hope they look into it ASAP.

Struddy is out of his mind acting like it's just ebbs and flows. A 31+ yr drought isn't an ebb and flow.

Zadorov would have been the big shift Leafs needed a guy who backs it up physically intimidation wise the money is also a statement to the lockeroom to empower a guy like that to take over as a leader than just having another 4th line depth enforcer

Because if Tanev goes down the RHD still looks thin. I already trust McCabe, Reilly is okay, Benoit has grown a bit, you can get an LHD for cheap next year when Tavares is off the books, but the RHD market is always slim for particular style of play+size

​@@NotExplicableHe really wouldn't be. Big Z is a bottom pairing guy that's been given too much money

Well said my friend

Not sure players make as big of a deal as we do. Plus, keep in mind that only the top players can be concerned about that. Everyone else just wants more money or a better family situation while playing in the NHL. So, the cap will probably go up unevenly for a few teams who take advantage of this.

He should come to Colorado and be our 2c.

The Leafs sure aren't sufficiently different from the team that in May lost its opening-round playoff series. Keeping the AM34-Marner-Nylander-Morgan Rielly-Tavares quintet together is taking up way too much cap space, and I see no reason not to more at a minimum 1 or more of Marner, Rielly and Tavares. The bottom-6 forward group remains a mess but whether Treliving will even tinker with that group still remains TBD. The Leafs IMO to SOME degree addressed their blueline and goaltending but whether either will hold up in the regular season, then (should they see playoff action) postseason, still remains TBD.

Still lots of time to make changes.

@@Eazy-Rider I sure hope Treliving ain't done making changes because man is the bottom-6 forward group quite poor quality.

Thay need to get rid of tavares and Marner. Period.

Of members of the AM34-Marner-Nylander-Morgan Rielly-Tavares quintet I look forward to seeing Marner and Tavares traded. Whether Treliving will trade either still remains TBD.

I’d say 2 of them this year and JT next year.

​@@baohoailyJT is fine if he signs on a sweetheart deal and goes down to 3C

@@people3865 yes a league minimum deal. As reparations for performing like a scrub in the playoffs for $11M. .6 points per game what value!!!

@@baohoaily Could say that about any of them

@@people3865 in total agreement. But too bad it’s real life and not NHL 24. I’d trade all of them including nostrils.

Anyone who’s played high-end hockey knows that if you have strong defense, it opens up a lot more space and opportunity for the forwards to score. If the forwards are trying to cover for poor defense (as the Leafs had to do this season), it limits their offensive capability.

@@profdave2861What about the other 7 seasons? D takes "some" pressure off the forwards (who still have defensive responsibilities), especially during a power play and PK. But is it enough? If they don't finish top 8 in the league in points, I'll view that as another blown season, and a waste of a trade deadline assets should they add a rental.

Did you ever think maybe they can with a big punishing defence?

@Joeblow12349 Maybe but were not there yet. A punishing defense takes forwards coming back and playing brutal two-way hockey. ie Marner won't. He won't body check, pick up his player, a trailer, no one, just circles around and waits for the puck. So does Nylander. Until this core quits playing soft, our upgraded D will effect nothing significant. As for offense, behavior is language. Bc all four were taken out of the playoffs by $1-2 million players.

@@harveywinkerbean1193 🥱

Guaranteed that Gary Bettman purposely held off Quennville’s reinstatement until after the Leaf’s hired someone else. Bettman does not want the cup to leave the US.

I'd like to believe ANY of Marner, Morgan Rielly and Tavares will be moved, but I'll believe that has happened after it actually HAS. Discussion about the Leafs starts at the 10:40 mark of the OverDrive excerpt but in response to Bryan Hayes' claim about the flat cap, Kyle Dubas could've capped signings of each member of the AM34-Marner-Nylander-Morgan Rielly-Tavares quintet at a per-season cap hit of US$4 million, NOT US$10 million or more. Just imagine how much more playoff success the Leafs might've had had Dubas, rather than having done what he did, did what he SHOULD have done so the Leafs could've back THEN added more DEPTH.

Without Matthews, Marner or Nylander, they would not even have been in the playoffs.

@johnsummerhill8323, the Leafs’ points %s, in the last 5 seasons, are mixed, with one of, for the season of: - 2019-20, via 81 points over 70 games, 57.86 rounded to the nearest 0.01 percentage point - 2020-21, via 77 points over 56 games, 68.75 - 2021-22, with 115 points over 82 games, 70.12 - 2022-23, with 111 points over 82 games, 67.68 - 2023-24, with 102 points over 82 games, 62.20 The Leafs needed help, towards the end of last regular season, from opponents of the Bolts to clinch a top-three divisional spot as the Leafs had ended off that portion of the schedule with five straight losses. As much as I hope that this season the Leafs will make it to a conference final, I don’t have much confidence they will barring significant changes to the bottom-six forward group, with none of Ryan Reaves, David Kampf, Calle Jarnkrok, Pontus Holmberg and Connor Dewar exactly confidence-inspiring. Trading Marner and 1 or more of Tavares, Reaves, Jarnkrok, Dewar, Holmberg and Kampf would, if executed well, provide that desperately needed shake up of that bottom six group. Otherwise, I see the leafs eventually ending up having a season very much like what last season the Toronto Raptors, having gone 25-57, including three overtime losses, after last preseason, had. The Raptors, during the last playoff-type game they played (in April 2023 at Scotiabank Arena against the Chicago Bulls), got just 8 of their 105 points from their bench. In a league in which is ideal to put up at at least 110 points per game, that performance wasn’t good enough. Even worse is that the Raptors blew a near-20-point lead to lose that game. At least the NBA has a soft salary cab, although even in an NHL that has a hard one, good teams find Waze to make sure their rosters are sufficiently deep to go on playoff runs. This past postseason it’s no accident the Dallas Stars, NY Rangers, Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers ended up as conference finalists while the very flawed Leafs and Winnipeg Jets ended up being eliminated in the opening round.

How much should the Leafs pay to buy Marner's NMC? Keeping in mind that the amount goes against the cap.

Lmfao winning a cup with the same guys and tavares slowing down even more? 😂

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 57 years in a row, I think they’ll win the Cup next spring 😂.

That’s a stretch marner had one bad playoff and he’s got no heart . I bet you he’s great this year with Berube in playoffs

Marner played all 7 playoff games on an ankle he finished rehabbing 3 weeks after the Leafs last game. Seems to me a couple of the other players didn't even play all 7 games.

U will eat your words leafs are going to the ECF this season

He is still producing

@@topperharley7892 producing For 11 million no way He’s no leader the Marchand incident proved that

@@modernhistory8978 plan the parade 🤣🤣

@@modernhistory8978 I was 12 once

they have never had a finisher like Marchesault - let alone Stamkos . It should give them a dimension that they have never had before .

He has 48 cans of Coors to down and he's only half way there