Kadri makes the most sense as a trade asset. Bozak has shown great chemistry with Kessel, and he's been locked up at a very reasonable $4.2M.
So our 1st line has a cap hit of $16.45M which lasts until the end of 2017-18. This top line produced 86 goals this season, or roughly 5.22 goals/$1M spent.
Comparatively, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf eat up $16.875M between the two of them, and the Ducks' top line of Smith-Pelley - Getzlaf - Perry (as per
HFBoards) netted 76 goals (though Smith-Pelley only played 19 games, so over an 82-game schedule, that would be about 8 goals), so let's make it 82 goals.
That equates to 4.64 goals/$1M spent.
Here're the numbers for the Eastern Conference playoff teams:
5.59G/$1M (Iginla got 30G on $1.8M with $2.4M in bonuses)
29.69G/$1M (3 ELC players: Johansen+Skille+Jenner)
5.21G/$1M
6.32G/$1M
4.78G/$1M
4.16G/$1M (using Giroux's new cap hit)
6.17G/$1M (1 ELC player: Bennett)
11.54G/$1M (2 ELC players: Johnson+Palat)
So arguably, the Leafs get legit top-line production from their top line at an about average cap expenditure, when not accounting for ELCs.
And really, the above data just goes to show how important
timely ELC players are to keeping teams competitive. Tampa's "top line" combined for 103 goals this season (pro-rated to 82-games for Stamkos, netting him 55 goals), however, having two ELC players means that line still had a lower cap hit than the Leafs.