The Leafs will be the team that ends Canada’s cup drought.

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Unless you somehow land a top pairing D for ~$5M or less (you won’t) or Sandin turns into a D as good as Makar (he won’t) yes you will absolutely have a worse D than you did this season, which is currently a bottom 5D and leading you out of the playoffs.

Not sure I’d be proud of that.

Some good teams have low salary D, because they have guys vastly out-performing their contracts or still on ELC while being impact D. If you’re banking on that happening then feel free, but that’s not a great game plan to have.

Some people just aren't built for problem solving.

"It's a bottom 5D. Spending enough more to be in the normal range won't be enough, you have to spend the most. You need a top pairing d at 5m. Who's Morgan Rielly? You need an ELC player that can outperform their contract. Why would you plan for that from a top 5 D prospect in the game."

It seems like there's nothing left for you to post in Leaf related threads. The defense is bad an will remain bad, because it doesn't matter who they spend the money on, or that they'll spend more, it's just doomed to be bad because you say so.

 

[4thline]

Obviously the sample size with Sandin is still very short for his play at the NHL level. However he hasn't looked bad and last week he had 2 assists against the Devils from shots he took that were tipped in. Also who said he will be as good as Makar?

No one, he's pulling ridiculous qualifications out of his ass because his argument fell apart under scrutiny.