Marner to Krakken

Toronto is either going to get a trade haul in return for Mitch Marner or they're going to get cap relief. They're not going to get both.

I purposely went out of my way to make this realistic...

You seriously think that's a haul? Seattle is only losing a #4 D and a 1B goaltender with less than a season of solid play under his belt from their roster, both of whom are 27 and on expiring contracts. Obviously a marner extension would be in place, but the other two are wait and see situations.

Go look at the trades for other top forwards in the league like meier, PLD, lindholm, horvat, giroux, etc. None of whom were close to as valuable as marner is now, all of whom garnered WAY better returns.

Personally, I think the only way Toronto gets a haul on Marner is if they retain to get him down closer to 8 mil. He's a good player, yes, but not 11mil good. Plus contending teams would be willing to part way with a haul to win now but won't have the cap flexibility to take on an 11 million dollar player.

Just my take on the situation. I got a feeling Leafs fans will be extremely underwhelmed my a Marner return if he's traded

He is 11 mil good though, he's been a top 3 RW in the league for years now. Seattle is in a unique situation where they have the cap to bring him in and re-sign him, while also having a realistic cup window over the span of his contract.

They have a ton of solid prospects who should be contributors soon, but no one who projects to become a player like marner in the future, let alone marner right now in his prime. That type of player is exactly what they could use, and Dacord and Borgen are the last two players they'd be losing sleep over.

The 8th overall pick in this year's draft, an inexpensive and overperforming goaltender, and a top four defenseman is definitely a haul.

Include enough cap dumps and retain enough salary to make the trade revenue neutral and I think Seattle might go for it. Expect Seattle to eat $6M+ in cap space and no way.