I'm not making a decision off one season. I'm making a decision off 7 postseasons.
Also, FWIW, if I were to move on from one of the three, it'd be Marner.
Me too. It's just shortsighted to laugh and say haha they are doing the same thing. No one has any idea what Trelivings plans are for the future. Since day 1 he said he wants to add massively to defense. All reports are he is working on it but not much out there in season.
The other thing is, Leafs have the most cap flexibility in the league. The only core pieces extended past next season are Matthews, Nylander, and Rielly. They have some great pieces like Knies, Woll, Robertson on ELC's and will be getting bridged and fill some key spots for us, especially Knies.
Leafs have also been one of the best teams in the league at finding great depth pieces for cheap. A guy like Jarnkrok only making 2.1 is an absolute steal.
So what do the Leafs have to work with? Well, they have the best goalscorer in the league locked up, a top winger in the game, and a #1 D who is having the best season of his career and is our best player every playoff. They have a potential future starter in both Woll and HIldebeast in the system already which when Woll needs a bigger deal, Hildebeast likely is ready to be a backup on an ELC.
The hard part, well you can't fill all the holes in UFA. But some of them can be. You can add top 4 D like Brodie pretty easily who give great value. You can make moves like the Muzzin trade and get 3 seasons of top pairing play out of a first and some mid prospects.
It's a challenge, but the Leafs have a great farm system right now with lots of prospects with value, they have their first this year and future draft picks. And they have a ton of cap space to work with to fill in the holes and retool the core by removing Marner if they wanted.
And all of that is irrelevant when I say, I am not convinced the Leafs are that far away from winning as it is anyways. HFboards don't watch the Leafs, they have no idea what they have. All it takes is Matthews being hot, Nylander being himself, some hot goaltending.