LeBrun: LeBrun sees Vegas, Toronto and Calgary as best landing spots for Pietrangelo

[Ledge And Dairy]

Theodore-Pietrangelo would probably be the best pairing in the league.

Josi - Ellis and Slavin - Hamilton have entered the chat

 

[Paul4587]

Theodore-Pietrangelo would probably be the best pairing in the league.

Well they wouldn’t be a pairing because Theodore wouldn’t be trusted to handle the matchups Pietrangelo would take. He’s the most sheltered top 4 dman in the league.

 

[Paul4587]

Maybe a Leaf fan can enlighten me but having looked at the numbers briefly, wouldn’t the Leafs need to move Nylander, Johnson and replace Andersen with a $3M goalie to make a Pietro signing work?

 

[Jerkbait]

Josi - Ellis and Slavin - Hamilton have entered the chat

Letang dumo ( minus playoffs), hedman and anyone!!!

 

[Jerkbait]

Maybe a Leaf fan can enlighten me but having looked at the numbers briefly, wouldn’t the Leafs need to move Nylander, Johnson and replace Andersen with a $3M goalie to make a Pietro signing work?

Not a leaf fan but the answer is NO... for one we dont know what AP would sign for ..could be 10 mil plus...you can be sure if AP signs , nylander and probably AJ are gone...and Dermott is not coming back... won't be pretty but it can be done

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

Letang dumo ( minus playoffs), hedman and anyone!!!

Letang - Dumoulin is not better than 4th and 6th in Norris voting this year, don't be that homer

 

[Deen]

This is one thing I never understand, If you can fit him under the cap somehow, especially a player as good as this one, why would you rather have cap space than add an elite player to a team that already has a bunch of really good players?

The point of playing is to win the cup. you win the cup by having a bunch of really good players, if you can fit the most good players under the cap as possible it gives you a better chance to win.

A lot of fans would rather have cap space every year than good players it seems.. I realize you may have to pay some younger players eventually, but there will be cases where they fizzle out and don't earn that big raise, and then you passed on that really good player two years ago for no reason.

You lose pivotal players if you spend to the cap every year.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

No thanks from Calgary. I would rather have the cap.

Lol and spend it on what? some other top 4RD?

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Maybe a Leaf fan can enlighten me but having looked at the numbers briefly, wouldn’t the Leafs need to move Nylander, Johnson and replace Andersen with a $3M goalie to make a Pietro signing work?

The Leafs would have to gut their depth up front to make it happen. You'd have to realistically sacrifice Nylander to make it work. Maybe Johnsson as well. Then you'd sign AP and have to replace those forwards with rookies or plugs. Andersen is a good goalie but if we could swap him for someone like Kuemper, I'm all for it. In the end, AP just doesnt make sense for Toronto.

 

[613Leafer]

Maybe a Leaf fan can enlighten me but having looked at the numbers briefly, wouldn’t the Leafs need to move Nylander, Johnson and replace Andersen with a $3M goalie to make a Pietro signing work?

Really longterm, moving Marner would be the easiest way to make the numbers work.

If you move Nylander, you still have 3 forwards making ~33.5M, which I think is by far the highest in the league for any teams top 3 forwards, and I think the Leafs would still be constantly dealing with cap issues every year.

If you move Marner, it's more like ~29.5M for your top 3 forwards, which is still I think the highest combined caphit for top 3 forwards on any team in the league, but decently more manageable.

Though if the Leafs do that, they'd have to make sure they were getting good value for Marner. With his actual salary only around ~7M on average going forward, I do think there would be a lot of interest.

The alternative is absolutely gutting the depth, which I don't think is sustainable. Leafs don't enough high quality prospects to fill out the bottom half of the roster, and would just be rolling the dice on too many bargain bin UFAs trying to make it work.

 

[kb]

Really longterm, moving Marner would be the easiest way to make the numbers work.

If you move Nylander, you still have 3 forwards making ~33.5M, which I think is by far the highest in the league for any teams top 3 forwards, and I think the Leafs would still be constantly dealing with cap issues every year.

If you move Marner, it's more like ~29.5M for your top 3 forwards, which is still I think the highest combined caphit for top 3 forwards on any team in the league, but decently more manageable.

Though if the Leafs do that, they'd have to make sure they were getting good value for Marner. With his actual salary only around ~7M on average going forward, I do think there would be a lot of interest.

They will move Johnsson, Kerfoot, and Andersen first. Robertson or Barabanov will backfill for Johnsson, and the will need to acquire a replacement #3C, which unfortunately is where I see pick #15 heading out the door for. Then just fill in with the rest at near NHL minimum signings like Spezza

 

[Rabid Ranger]

This is one thing I never understand, If you can fit him under the cap somehow, especially a player as good as this one, why would you rather have cap space than add an elite player to a team that already has a bunch of really good players?

The point of playing is to win the cup. you win the cup by having a bunch of really good players, if you can fit the most good players under the cap as possible it gives you a better chance to win.

A lot of fans would rather have cap space every year than good players it seems.. I realize you may have to pay some younger players eventually, but there will be cases where they fizzle out and don't earn that big raise, and then you passed on that really good player two years ago for no reason.

Because this is HF where things like draft pucks and cap space trump everything else. The idea of potentially winning is more important than actually winning.

 

[Colt55]

Maybe a Leaf fan can enlighten me but having looked at the numbers briefly, wouldn’t the Leafs need to move Nylander, Johnson and replace Andersen with a $3M goalie to make a Pietro signing work?

Yes yes

 

[A1LeafNation]

Yes yes

No just 1. They have 7m in cap space already.

 

[seanlinden]

Really longterm, moving Marner would be the easiest way to make the numbers work.

If you move Nylander, you still have 3 forwards making ~33.5M, which I think is by far the highest in the league for any teams top 3 forwards, and I think the Leafs would still be constantly dealing with cap issues every year.

If you move Marner, it's more like ~29.5M for your top 3 forwards, which is still I think the highest combined caphit for top 3 forwards on any team in the league, but decently more manageable.

Though if the Leafs do that, they'd have to make sure they were getting good value for Marner. With his actual salary only around ~7M on average going forward, I do think there would be a lot of interest.

The alternative is absolutely gutting the depth, which I don't think is sustainable. Leafs don't enough high quality prospects to fill out the bottom half of the roster, and would just be rolling the dice on too many bargain bin UFAs trying to make it work.

Honestly, it depends on how much AP costs you.... but I do have to agree.

If it's $7.5m, I think you can justify continuing with the top-heavy approach. If it's $8m, or $8+, you might be able to make things work this year by offloading Johnsson, Kerfoot, and downgrading a bit on Andersen, but it's a short term solution and I think they'll find that they need more depth.

Amongst forwards, the Leafs have the 3rd, 4th, and 5th highest cap hit players in the league. With the flat cap projected for the next while -- even if that's going to change, I don't believe it's changing substantially. Who's even up in the next 2 years that says "I'm worth $10m"? Only names that come to mind for me are:
Laine next year
Barkov 2 years
Malkin 2 years
Gaudreau 2 years
Ovechkin next year

And even within that, Laine's got a lot of holes in his game, Barkov not sure if he's got the numbers to shoot that high, and Malkin/Ovie are old.

You want to build around having one of the best 1-2 punches in the league at centre? I think that's great. Auston Matthews IMO will be a top 5 forward over the majority of his contract, and even if Johnny T is overpaid a bit, it's 1 guy overpaid by like $1m - $1.5m.

William Nylander at $7m fits quite well within that scheme as your top winger. With Marner's $11m, realistically, that can be converted into a $4m defenceman, a $5m forward, and a $3.5m forward.


Edit: As well, every time you do this mental exercise, it kind of makes you think -- is signing Alex Pietrangelo even the right move?

The Leafs have $6m in cap space right now with 18 guys on the roster. Muzzin & Holl were an excellent shutdown pairing last year.

Does it not make more sense to try and dip into the $4m defenceman market (Hamonic, Brodie, Tanev, Manson, Pesce) -- keep your core together. Get an ideal partner for Morgan Rielly. Hope that between Dermott, Sandin & Lehtonen you come up with a halfway decent bottom pair -- or maybe look at a veteran along the lines of Luke Schenn or Zach Bogosian.

Up front, it means you still likely have to move Andreas Johnsson or Alex Kerfoot; but it's also a situation where maybe you can move Freddy Andersen while bringing in a Darcy Kuemper and save a bit of money (while getting next year as well) -- and can look to make "fit" trades rather than cap-saving trades.

 

[Colt55]

No just 1. They have 7m in cap space already.

With only 18 people signed.

 

[A1LeafNation]

With only 18 people signed.

When do we have to sign these players by March? We'll be okay.

 

[Faltorvo]

Maybe a Leaf fan can enlighten me but having looked at the numbers briefly, wouldn’t the Leafs need to move Nylander, Johnson and replace Andersen with a $3M goalie to make a Pietro signing work?

Kerfoot and Johnsson gone,,gets the job done,,that 7m cap right there

friendly also has rosen/marincin on the books,,they will be in the ahl,,that frees up another 1.5m

those 2 in the AHL AP would have us at 6D and 1.5m cap for barabanov and Korshkov to fill those 2 forward foles.

 

[Faltorvo]

Really longterm, moving Marner would be the easiest way to make the numbers work.

If you move Nylander, you still have 3 forwards making ~33.5M, which I think is by far the highest in the league for any teams top 3 forwards, and I think the Leafs would still be constantly dealing with cap issues every year.

If you move Marner, it's more like ~29.5M for your top 3 forwards, which is still I think the highest combined caphit for top 3 forwards on any team in the league, but decently more manageable.

Though if the Leafs do that, they'd have to make sure they were getting good value for Marner. With his actual salary only around ~7M on average going forward, I do think there would be a lot of interest.

The alternative is absolutely gutting the depth, which I don't think is sustainable. Leafs don't enough high quality prospects to fill out the bottom half of the roster, and would just be rolling the dice on too many bargain bin UFAs trying to make it work.

Kerfoot and Johnsson gone clears 7m cap,,that should be enough cap added,,now if you call that gutting of the depth,,well

they make room for robertson and barabanov

 

[Funk21]

If reports are true that Pietrangelo turned down an 8x8 there is only one way this works IMO outlined below.

I think a lot of us fans have gone on CapFriendly to build out our favourite team from time to time. That being said the TML would need to trade Nylander, AJ and Kerfoot to make signing Pietrangelo work. Furthermore his cap hit couldn’t be anything over 8.5 per year. If they were to trade for his rights and offer a ton in signing bonus/upfront it could work. The question is what will STL demand to allow us the extra year and would Pietrangelo take 8.5?

 

[seanlinden]

If reports are true that Pietrangelo turned down an 8x8 there is only one way this works IMO outlined below.

I think a lot of us fans have gone on CapFriendly to build out our favourite team from time to time. That being said the TML would need to trade Nylander, AJ and Kerfoot to make signing Pietrangelo work. Furthermore his cap hit couldn’t be anything over 8.5 per year. If they were to trade for his rights and offer a ton in signing bonus/upfront it could work. The question is what will STL demand to allow us the extra year and would Pietrangelo take 8.5?

It's not about the money for AP... it's about how the money is delivered and the restrictions on movement.

Wherever he goes, he's going to stay.

 

[613Leafer]

Kerfoot and Johnsson gone clears 7m cap,,that should be enough cap added,,now if you call that gutting of the depth,,well

they make room for robertson and barabanov

You have to replace them with players though. At absolute minimum, that's 1.5M to fill their roster spots, so you're actually only saving ~5.5M.

Also going with a 3rd and 4th line made up entirely of bargain bin UFAs and rookies IS gutting the depth. It would likely cause problems all year with our secondary scoring, special teams, etc, and if we had multiple injuries up front (which happens every year), it'd get even worse.

 

[Amadeus]

Maybe a Leaf fan can enlighten me but having looked at the numbers briefly, wouldn’t the Leafs need to move Nylander, Johnson and replace Andersen with a $3M goalie to make a Pietro signing work?

In a nutshell, it'll be cap he'll to make it happen so I'm not in favor of depleting any depth we have and we already have no depth past the top 6 forwards.

 

[AvroArrow]

Just imagining if our 3 RFA just took "paycuts" aka not exploit Dubas. Extra 3M in cap space would've been phenomenal right about now. I don't see how this signing can work without moving Marner or Nylander. You need depth if you wanna win in the nhl, star players are nice and all, but you need the other 17-19 guys on the team to contribute.

 

[HarryLime]

The only way the Leafs can afford him is get rid of Marner or Willy.

I'd drive Marner to the airport