Yeah, we win that honor by $1 million. I don't have any issue with this, in and of itself, except that we're second from the bottom in payroll at forward, and second from the bottom in payroll at goaltender (not counting Darling on IR), but fourth from the top in payroll at defense. Trading Faulk for a similar forward (both in terms of salary and talent) would go a long way toward balancing that all out.
I've come to believe, pretty strongly, that there are two ways to really make a team leapfrog its way up the competitiveness ladder:
1) Draft a superstar
2) Take advantage of some team that's having issues with a good player.
#1 is why teams tank, it's self-explanatory.
#2 is your Sharks getting Joe Thornton, Ducks getting Pronger and Niedermayer, Stars getting Seguin and Spezza, Jets stealing Byfuglien, Kings taking Richards and Carter off two teams, us getting Jordan Staal for scraps, Sens taking Turris off the Coyotes, Flames robbing Boston for Hamilton, and us turning around and robbing the Flames. The realm of crazy-stupid trades that happen for off ice reasons. This is where one team takes another to the cleaners and potentially skips ahead of the draft-develop model without killing their budget on a UFA.
Right now the Leafs (who need a better defensive group) have a damned good forward sitting around in Sweden doing nothing, for purely monetary reasons. We are last in the league in forward payroll, and we have an extreme surplus of defensemen.
This is where, one way or another, Waddell needs to make magic happen. Even if it costs us a player we kind of like, that's OK. If it's Faulk, even better. But this is the window he should be waiting for as a GM.