Over 20m in cap space.
Disposable players/contracts: Alzner and Shaw (9m combined)
Habs stay 4th overall at the draft and draft Tkachuk (or better)
Habs throw 12m at Tavares for 7 years
Habs throw 12m at Carlson for 2 years (rumour has it he would take a short term high money deal)
Habs offer 5x5 to De Haan
Drouin/Tavares/Gallagher
Pacioretty/Galchenyuk/Tkachuk
Lehkonen/Danault/Scherbak
Deslauriers/Hudon/Byron
De Haan/Carlson
Mete/Weber
Reilly/Petry
Juulsen
Price
Yeah, that team would absolutely dump on this iteration of the Leafs. Do any of those players necessarily sign with Montreal? Of course not. Do the Habs trade Pacioretty, Weber, or the 4th overall pick? Maybe.
But to say the Habs have a ZERO percent chance of winning the cup within the next 3 years is single handedly the most stupid thing I have read on these boards in a LONG time. They have 20m in cap space, another close to 9m they can move with draft picks, one of the League's best goaltenders over the last 4 years, one of the League's best goal scorers over the last 4 years, a solid #1 defenseman --- give me a break.
Correct, but neither do the Leafs. All of the Leafs top players are playing in the NHL now.
We still have Mete and Juulsen who are both looking like serious NHLers for years to come.
Scherbak and Lehkonen are going to be two of the League's best 3rd line goal scorers
Byron is goal per dollar the best contract in the League
Chucky and Drouin are still incredibly young and have shown flashes of brilliance
This team is far from needing to completely rebuild, for what it's worth.
To be frank, if the Leafs are too stubborn to fix their defensive woes, their only option is to pray Lilly turns into a #1 or Doughty falls into their lap. Otherwise, this team has doomed Matthews to be the next Mats Sundin.