This begs the question of whether or not the Leafs can maintain their strategy of paying the core players everything they want. The Leafs have already struggled to fill out the roster with suitable depth options with just one 11 million dollar player on the team. While the cap is projected to go up substantially over the next two seasons, the gains could entirely be eaten up by Nylander and Marner, effectively putting the team in the same situation they are now.
This current Leafs team does not seem to be as dominant as recent teams so if this is the level of depth the team is going to have to work with perpetually, playoff success may very well continue to elude the franchise.