Without trading either Marner or Nylander, the Leafs will very likely lose Hyman. Getting rid of Kertfoot will not be enough and there’s also the need of cap if they want to upgrade the depth.
It’ll be either Andersen or Rittich I believe. It‘ll depend on what offers Andersen can get in the open market nut I‘d think Campbell will be the no.1 goalie and Rittich will be the cheaper backup.
Sorry to disappoint you, but IMO Rielly is not the stud d man of a championship caliber team. He wasn’t the worst Leafs in the playoffs but I thought he regressed over the season and wasn’t impactful enough in the playoff. His strength is skating with the puck but his defence, lack of a power shot and as a quarterback of the pp are his weaknesses. He‘s of good value with his existing contract and he’ll probably play his heart out next season as this’ll be his contract year, but the Leafs may be wise to move on from him if he decides to test the free agency market.
The performance of the Canadiens from hereon-in will have an impact on how management and the cheerleaders view this team’s chances next season. If the Canadiens can upset the Golden Knights, or even make a close series out of it, they’ll believe that the Leafs are close enough to stay course and no major changes are needed. They’ll probably cite the injuries to Tavares and Muzzin as excuses and totally ignore how the rest of the core choked, just as they did the past three seasons.
I have always been of the opinion that having 40+ millions tied up on 4 forwards won’t work. They need to spread the wealth over to defence and depth on goal and forwards. They need more team players like Hyman. I still believe in Marner but won’t be terribly disappointed if he’s traded for the right kind of players, but the better decision will be the trading of Nylander to keep Hyman and add depth elsewhere.
