The Swedish Summer of 2018

Team: 2018-19 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: May 18, 2018

Published: May 18, 2018

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Carolina is going to look to dump Rask's salary since they'll have a couple of depth centres ready to play for them full-time next season. I don't think they'll receive many solid offers so Toronto should be able to swoop in and get him for a sneaky cheap price.

McElhinney will be a good backup for Smith and Rosén's readiness would be intriguing for Calgary and Nielsen is a big defenceman from Alberta who they can give more time to develop. Kylington is probably another year away from being on an NHL bottom-pairing and it gives the Leafs tremendous depth on the left side of the blue line.

I'm a fan of Axel Jonsson-Fjällby. He was great at the WJCs last year and I think he has elite PKer upside. Toronto has a ton of depth on the RW so they can afford to move Bracco; hopefully this gives Leivo an opportunity to play somewhere else, and Gauthier might start as a 13th forward for the Caps but could take the 4C slot if he progresses from where he's currently at.

Washington is in win-now mode and Jonsson-Fjällby is still a couple of years away. The Leafs can afford to put him on the Marlies until Marleau's contract expires, which would enable them to move up Johnsson and Grundström if they've progressed (I think they will), and start Jonsson-Fjällby on the 4th line.

By then they'll probably move Brown to fit in Korshkov but that's still a year or so away, I think.

I know... Not much done with the defence.

I don't think they're going to do much on the blue line. I wouldn't be surprised if Hainsey is traded but I don't think Dubas is going to force anything. I could be wrong, though. I could see the Leafs come to the conclusion that giving up so many shots may not be a product of the defence but of their tactics. Dubas mentioned how he thought they could improve there during his press conference when he was announced as GM.

It's also important that they have a lot of cap space so that the ELC bonus's don't cross over to next year when they won't have the space with The Big Three presumably all signed to long-term contracts. That's also why I didn't put Horton on LTIR. I don't think the Leafs will put him on it for next season.

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