I don’t what the plan is on D this year but I can’t pencil together a decent 6 with what they have. I want to get better, feels like we’re getting worse.
Realistically, they were always going to get worse this off-season. That's just a function of the cap. Muzzin is replacing Gardiner, effectively, and beyond that they don't really have the cap room for anything else.
The Leafs right now have, or will have, just under 11 million dollars in cap space. Most of that, it's fair to say, is going to go to Marner. Trading Zaitsev and perhaps Brown is how Dubas is hoping to free up enough money to make some low cost additions to the back end and fill out the roster. If that's successful the Leafs still aren't going to be bringing in major pieces who'll drastically alter the team's capabilities but rather hopefully some good value Hainsey-esque veterans(in terms of cost, rather than ability).
I get that we want a continuous upward trajectory but were people expecting the Leafs to sign Tavares and then Nylander-Matthews-Marner and turn around and have 25 million dollars to throw at free agent defensemen? That's not how the league works.