All Canadian Division

[RGM81]

Out of curiosity.... who is the 5th big forward? (Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Tavares being the big 4..... who do you have as #5 ?).

While I do not believe that any of those four are getting moved anytime soon, I suspect you could get a very good defeceman for Nylander, you could get a superstar for Matthews, but I can't see the other two getting a real top-pairing guy, unless they're after someone a little bit older, who has already started to decline.

And it ain't happening during the season. With the quarantine rules for any trades that would see the player cross the Canada-US border, no team wants to be without that calibre of player for 14 days. That could be as many as 6-7 games.

[mooneyes]

Morgan Rielly? lol Thought it was 5 for some reason. Those 4 contracts could probably pay 5 high end forwards if their contracts were a little more team friendly. Gave the first 3 big pay days than expected Marner to take less didn't work out for them.

Out of curiosity.... who is the 5th big forward? (Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Tavares being the big 4..... who do you have as #5 ?).

While I do not believe that any of those four are getting moved anytime soon, I suspect you could get a very good defeceman for Nylander, you could get a superstar for Matthews, but I can't see the other two getting a real top-pairing guy, unless they're after someone a little bit older, who has already started to decline.

[mooneyes]

Amazing that Tavares, Matthews and Marner take up 42% of their cap! 3 of the leagues top 7 cap hits. Assuming you want an NHL caliber #1 goalie, and at least one star D-man, plus Nylander's contract you have 6 players taking over 60% of the cap.
Hard to image how that will work unless Anderson stands on his head and the other 5 produce like the 80's Oilers.

[mooneyes]

Jets vs Leaf's tonight.
Laine is out which is a huge bummer, he was a beast against the Flames.
Perreault takes his spot on 2nd line.
Logan Stanley is in on 3rd D-pairing. He is a giant at 6 7" Hopefully his foot speed has improved and will be a late bloomer.

Could be a high scoring game.

[WillyC]

Mitch Marner with a pair of goals tonight... Tavares with 6 points in 4 games.

The Leafs are off to a good start... now 2 games against Edmonton after they were dominated by the Habs.

[30ranfordfan]

And it ain't happening during the season. With the quarantine rules for any trades that would see the player cross the Canada-US border, no team wants to be without that calibre of player for 14 days. That could be as many as 6-7 games.

Yup. There will be no big trades this year for the Canadian teams... unless it's with each other.

Side question: Why is there a mandatory 14 day quarantine? I understand COVID, but there seems to be a much simpler (and quicker) solution: Tests.

I'm assuming the NHL is testing its players anyway, and probably something in the range of every 72 hours. If a guy is traded, claimed, etc: Why not simply test the player daily, for 3 days straight (while he's quarantining) and then let him join the team after 3 negatives? What am I missing?

Morgan Rielly? lol Thought it was 5 for some reason. Those 4 contracts could probably pay 5 high end forwards if their contracts were a little more team friendly. Gave the first 3 big pay days than expected Marner to take less didn't work out for them.

Amazing that Tavares, Matthews and Marner take up 42% of their cap! 3 of the leagues top 7 cap hits. Assuming you want an NHL caliber #1 goalie, and at least one star D-man, plus Nylander's contract you have 6 players taking over 60% of the cap.
Hard to image how that will work unless Anderson stands on his head and the other 5 produce like the 80's Oilers.

Yeah, you mentioned 5 forwards - and that tripped me up.

Nylander is a bargain under $7m, Matthews is worth every penny of his contract. Tavares was a UFA, so a monster number is the only way you get that player.

I understand why people get frustrated with the big dollars the Leafs are spending on those 4 forwards, but Marner is pretty much the only one that (arguably) overpaid.... and even then, the contract isn't that bad. Is Marner an elite level winger? Is he a top 20 forward in the league? I don't think he's quite that.... so probably not quite worth the 10.9 he's getting... but there's a little more to it than that.

A lot of what goes into these salaries, and how teams manage their cap, is projecting what the cap will be. When Marner signed that deal in 2019... it was a 6 year pact. The Cap was set to be 81.5 million. Likely they expected it to be at least 83.5 million this year, and 85.5 million in 2021-22. That's not a Leafs thing, that's the entire league. With new TV revenues (the NBC deal is up sometime in the next couple of years) it's quite likely that the cap would have been floating around 90m by 2023.

Suddenly the cap hit on those four is well below half of the team's budget, and it's very manageable. It's also quite likely that 10-11 million is the new norm for "really good, 1st line forwards" and none of those guys are in the top 10 highest paid contracts anymore.

Then COVID... revenues tank, the Cap is going to be flat for a while, and things don't look so rosy.