I'm curious as to why you think in between McDavid and Eichel is fair for Matthews.

Because they are three franchise players of roughly the same age and that is their ranking. McDavid, Matthews, Eichel.

if im nylander, and i see that marner could get 8, why cant I get 7.5.

Matthews signing for 11.25 is delusional. Marleau has an NMC so he cant be traded unless he waives which is extremely unlikely.

Agreed, also Matthews has said several times team success is what makes a player the best in the world. I see him taking less than he's worth(His worth being easily 13AAV, especially considering the endorsement deals he will get in Toronto and discount that Tavares took to play with the leafs.

Also agree Marleau's got to go. Other sources say the deal is between 6 and 6.4 by 6. And it's for sure 6 or 7 years if it's 7mil per.

That is a child's argument, if you look at comparable contracts, aka Filip Forsberg 6mil, who had a very similar points per game, 7.5 mil would be insane

forsberg signed his contract at a lower salary cap. the cap has raised since then. he should make more then pastarnak at least.

Your contracts for the depth guys are the problems here. Kapanen will be gone if he wants over 3 mill. I think he'll sign a 1 year deal under 2 mill and hope to have another good season before cashing in with a longer term deal in the neighbourhood of 4-5 years.

Johnsson may not have what it takes to succeed on the 4th line so I wouldn't be giving him term either.

Of course, 7.5 is way to high was my point. Pastranaks numbers were slightly better than Nylander's so I'd be happy with anywhere between 6.3 and 6.9 by 6.

If Matthews wants more than 11.25 and Marleau won't waive the Leafs have to trade someone. And that someone will be Kadri. If you trade away a Dman you make your defence weaker still. No forwards outside your top 4 besides Kadri and (maybe if he gets your deal) KK can be traded to open up enough salary to replace themselves and leave cap room for the new guy (let alone having any room left for TDL pickups, short term injuries, etc).

but just a thought though. if he looks at his team mate, who expects 8, then why wouldn't he ask for more. not saying he will. but just a thought

Trading Kadri is a terrible idea. He has a tonne of value to this team because he has such a good contract

Delusional is a pretty strong word considering this would make him the second highest player in the while league

if they want to be serious cup contenders, they need to add defense. and trading away kadri to acquire D, makes a ton of sense. i mean, their top 4 doesn't compete against the bruins, or the lightning. plus the amount of workload andersen gets, and the amount of shots he takes, that really effects goalies in the long run. if he's worn down in the playoffs, it'll be another 1st rd exit.

then imagine what he'll fetch on the market, because the guys whom are about to sign contracts wont be such team friendly contracts. unless they trade nylander

You're right, which is why Dubas has to handle this Nylander fracas perfectly. It will be very interesting to see the final numbers. He won't be able to play hardball so much next year with Matthews and Marner.

Why delusional? Mathews could get anywhere from 10.5m-13m. Delusional would be saying mathews gets10m or less. Not sure why you atre bringing up marleau I didn’t see anything in the other comments or description.


You are a little high in the kappanen contract, money and term. If he continues to produce he will get a short bridge deal to prove consistency.

Marner will not get much more than nylander. This is why dubas is pushing such a hard bargain. If nylander takes 6.5-7m over 6years expect marner to be 8m or less over 8 years. Raise for cap inflation and two extra rfa years. Mitch of any rfa’s is most likely to take a bit of a discount, just like he did on his elc deal. It will be fair and friendly.

Much like last night a lot of perimeter shots. The defense seems to be just fine. Most of the high scoring games we were a bit shakey between the pipes rather than the defense. If a good opportunity comes around to make an upgrade that would be great, if not than we won’t. Doesn’t make sense to overpay and ruin what we do have going.

i get ur point, but at the end of the day, u wont get deep in the playoffs. maybe after an early exit this year, that management will realize that. who knows

I try not to do much fortune telling... I predicted Tampa winning the cup over Winnipeg last year... but instead two teams with weaker defense got in.... our defense is already improved over last year. Polak out and ozhiganov in. Dermott is looking stronger and with bozak and jvr gone the team defense looks better. I also wouldn’t blame just our defense on that early exit last year. Our whole team did not come out to play during the first 4 games.

I don’t think there’s a team in the league that wouldn’t mind an upgrade on D, even Tampa was trying to get in on karlsson.

i can't comment about vegas. their whole team was a surprise. but i know for a fact that u can't say washingtons D core is weak. carlson, niskanen, orlov, arent a weak d-group

Nope not weak but weaker, certainly not as good as Tampa or Boston. Very similar goals against as the leafs throughout the season. I believe it was only 2 or 3 goals difference if I’m not mistaken.

It's not weak but isn't strong, it's also not that amazingly better than the leafs d. Better of course, but the difference is exaggerated in the media. As Jamiepo said the addition of Ozighanov and Dermott's progression makes our d a lot better than last year.

Also, what do you have to say about the Penguins 2016-2017 d core. Teams can win built down the middle with good team defence

caps had 2.9 GA, while leafs had 2.8 GA, but in the playoffs, leafs had a 4.00 GA, while the caps had 2.54 GAA. the caps also faced significantly lesser shots on net, then the leafs, and the caps also had injuries on thier backend to thier top 4 players. in the playoffs, they held it down, while the leafs D was just exposed by Boston. also, the jets didn't play good last night. they were lazy through most of the game. if the jets played properly, u would have known the value of a good D-core.

the pens had crosby and malkin, whom are much better then matthews and tavares will ever be, backed by the fact that the pens had two number 1 goalies. one played majoirty of the regular season, while the other played majority of the playoffs. not a lot of teams have the luxury of that, esp not the leafs. the amout of rest those goalies had would be insane. no regular season to wind them down