The Core

[hobarth]

People like to point to Wash. as an example of what might happen if the core is kept intact, of course that's only possible in the next 2 years unless JT resigns for a considerable discount.

We can also look at Florida, the best regular season record in the NHL 2 years ago but playoff success didn't follow. Florida could've did the waiting game like TO or they could make the franchise changing change and get the results we saw this year. It seems they recognized the limitations of their team and decided to change the core, I think TO needs to smell those roses.

Nylander, M & M are due to renegotiate their contracts, I doubt they will accept the same amount of money so we can expect to see considerable increases, Wash. locked up Ovie for 13 years, our Ovie's don't even want to be committed for longer than 5/6 years. I don't blame them but the money they command will always cripple the Leafs.
We're even hearing that Matthews only wants to sign for 3 years because of even greater paydays in the near future.

I think our core does have a possible Cup in the future but it's extremely unlikely if those 3 and Rielly instead of JT continue to get 1/2 of TO's Cap dollars or an even greater percentage.