Looking at this affects the cap for next year....
Assuming we buyout Cowen and not counting ELC's or buryable contracts Leafs have $57,385,833 committed to 9 forwards, 4 D, and 1 goalie next year. That includes Cowen's cap benefit, Gleason's buyout, Kessel's retention, and this years cap overage of $502,500 due to Rielly hitting bonuses. It also included Horton.
If we assume Horton LTIR for full relief, that drops down to $52,085,833 with the following lineup. I'm not going to assume we can LTIR Robidas or anyone else.
JVR - ______ - ______
______ - Kadri - Komarov
Michalek - Bozak - ______
Laich - ______ - ______
Greening, Lupul
Rielly - ______
Gardiner - ______
______ - ______
Hunwick
Bernier
______
With Horton, and Robidas nowhere to be found.
Toss in Nylander, Brown, Soshnikov, and Hyman in the forward corps, then we need to make some RFA/Zaitsev signings. Throw Carrick, Marincin, and Zaitsev in on the back end, Sparks in goal, and Holland up front. Zaitsev getting 925k, Carrick 800k, and Marincin 900k, Sparks 700k, Holland 1 million(just quick estimates), and the following lineup take shape for $59,653,331
JVR - ______ - Soshnikov
Nylander - Kadri - Komarov
Michalek - Bozak - Brown
Laich - Holland - Hyman
Greening, Lupul
Rielly - ______
Gardiner - Carrick
Marincin - Zaitsev
Hunwick
Bernier
Sparks
Which leaves 2 spots needed to fill. Assuming a 74 million dollar cap(is the cap number out for next year yet?) we have $14,346,669 in cap space. Plenty of room for Stamkos if management wants to take that route. Which is why I put Kadri on the 2nd line, and shifted Nylander to wing to leave that as an option.
You also need to fill that top pairing D role. Which could be tough. Kadri was my trade chip to acquire a young defenceman like Brodin, but given they just committed to him for 6 years it would be bad business to trade him anytime soon, we may need to look to UFA.
There's also the possibilities of Vesey and Matthews/Laine/+ being obtained and they get/earn spots, as well as Marner, and other young guys like Johnson, Kapenen, Lindberg, Leivo, Leipsic, Harrington, Corrado, Percy, Loov, Froese, Gauthier, but they're all pretty cheap so for purposes of figuring out how much cap space we may have they're interchangeable with most of the lineup above.
