This is the quote I saw from CJ:
“What’s interesting to me is that Brendan Shanahan phoned each of the Leafs’ top players to share the news about Kyle Dubas, and those players came away from those conversations believing that Brendan Shanahan’s intention is to bring the entire core four back.
Unless there is something more detailed I am not seeing a promise here. The intention is to bring them all back but he failed to say the words "if we can afford to" out loud. The qualifier is if they can't meet on the money or the contract term then its not possible. Unless he said bring them all back for whatever they want they have to know there is really no guarantee. He was just trying to keep them from freaking out, the same as with the Keefe did a great job comment.
On July 1:
"What the players' agents said — and how they said it — created “a dramatical shift in my thinking,” as I drove home that night: “As they expressed, they might not want to be signing an extension. And I have to take that very seriously.”
See how easy that was? I won't believe anything until July.