The Toronto Maple Leafs have a hard enough time winning without other teams doing favors for the team that beat them in the first round, and which they’ll have to go through eventually if they want any success.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are always going to be at a disadvantage with teams like Tampa who play in districts that don’t tax, and which then allow them to give players the same amount of take-home pay as another team, but with a lower cap hit.
Tampa already has enough advantages without other teams just outright doing them favors, which is exactly what happened this weekend when the Nashville Predators made a trade so stupid that I assumed the original report must have been wrong.