If the first team’s players are living up to those deals, there’s zero reason to play them on the top line together. Likely two play on line one and one runs line two. That would still give you a much better first line than team two and probably not much worse of a second line than team two. The reality is that stars are more valuable than non-stars and the current salary cap allocations have stars players underpaid relative to mid-level players. The 13 million types like MacKinnon/McDavid/Matthews are usually worth more than twice as much as the average 7.5 million dolllar player. Also, as mentioned previously, the high dollar players would be more valuable for the PP.
Also, people keep bringing up the Leafs but that’s a bad comparison because A) Tavares hasn’t been close to living up to his contract since his first season with the Leafs and B) Matthews and Marner haven’t been living up to their deals in the playoffs regularly.
This is easily the first team and I think people are too focused on Leafs and the fact that a lot of players are playing over their smaller deals currently. But a 7.5 million deal is getting someone like Elias Lindholm in today’s market. You’re not going anywhere with those guys as your best players.