Trade zaistzev and marleu and then there is space but you are still losing gardnier

That would be great for cap space, assuming a deal can be done for those two players.

Doubt Marner gets that much. More likely is $9.5M.

Both have clauses so not that easy and Marleau going to agree to a trade.

He’s crazy to accept anything less than $10. He’s this young and already crushing it and only going to get better

Girardi at 3m is more beneficial than kappy????

Sign mathews at 12m and marner at 10m leave girardi out and replace with anyone 1m or less to play the bottom pair and everything fits. Brown may be a casualty of our cap but the leafs have a lot of good contracts that can be moved. There has only ever been 2 players in the history of the nhl to sign an 8 figure deal out of their elc. Neither mathews or marner is McJesus please take a look at his trophy collection. The other is Eichel. Certainly mathews falls somewhere between Eichel and mcdavid. Marner is probably close to comparable with Eichel although he is not a 1C. I find him very comparable to Johnny Gaudreau. Putting up some big numbers with Tavares this year will for sure give him an edge and inflate his contract. But 11m not to sure about that.

Yeah but he's a winger not a center and for wingers to get over $10M he better be elite for years to come. His first two seasons were very good but not Elite $10M+ seasons. If I was his agent, maybe you instead shoot for a 2 year team friendly bridge deal and then a max deal for $12M after that if I believe he can put up 80+ points both seasons which he's easily on pace for this season.

Ya true. If I were him, I’m not signing any long term deal unless the money is huge. Bridge deal wouldn’t be bad

Kuch got 9.5 starting next year as a (mostly) pending UFA. Marner wont even sniff 10, and my bet is anything under 9 (8.5 is my personal number).

Agree, with that. Take $9M on 3 years...2 if you can swing it, then go for max contract value on the open market. If he can sustain 3 seasons in a row of 80+ points and is only 23 or 24 when going for a new deal, certainly he can get $12M x 7 years considering also the cap increases in the next 2 to 3 years.

May I introduce you to a man named Nikita Kucherov?
Why is it that the Leafs have to pay a huge 'tax' to keep their RFA's while everyone else will get normal contracts?

May I introduce you to Florida 0% income tax versus Toronto income tax?

8.5m might be a bit low I think somewhere between there and 9.5m is reasonable. I think if Rantanen signs before Marner we will have a solid comparable for an upper limit. Personally with Rantanen’s production I would say that marner is about a full 1m less than Rantanen at least. I don’t think he is a 12-13m player.

Kuch also signed with the team with the lowest tax rate, which allows them to entice players to sign for cheaper. He also signed his deal when the salary cap was $79.5M, Marner will be signing when the cap is (probably) going to be $83M.

If Marner stays healthy and scores 100+ points theres no reason why he couldnt get around $10M AAV

also Kuch was a pending RFA not UFA

I think Dubas will be able to do better at negotiating deals for Marner and Matthews. Marner at 9.5M and Matthews at around 11.34M-11.5M seems doable. I would be okay signing them to 6 or 7 year deals instead of the 8 max to get those cap hits if they are unwilling to sign for less than 12.5 and 11 for 8 years. Although i agree it would be nice to sign a veteran RD to a stop gap contract like you suggested if Matthews and Marner are unwilling to sign for a more reasonable prize i would put Liljegren into the lineup instead of signing a vet for a few million more. Again if Matthews and Marner are unwilling to take less than you suggested I would really put the squeeze on Johnsson(2M) and Kapanen(2.5) to sign 1-2 year bridge deals at a hyman and brown type number. Brown can be moved for a pick to save a million if need be. He is expendable as a 2M dollar 4th line RW with all our Marlie depth coming soon. This would buy them time to have Marleau come off the books.

I hope Dubas and the team can convince them to take reasonable deals by front loading them both and cramming as much signing bonus money upfront as possible before they take that away in the next CBA negotiations. That plus the possible endorsement deals for them both will hopefully quench there thirst. Fingers crossed.

You dont really think income tax had anything to do with his RFA bridge deal do you? On the UFA one it matters more but for an RFA bridge deal not so much. Dude you just said Mitch will get 3@9. Get out of here with that ****. Kuch got 4.7~ on his. even with taxes and inflation your numbers are wildly off.

They sign the deal with the projected cap you know. They aren't idiots. Kuch was one year from being a UFA, that means they are buying UFA years (more $$$). It is why I said he was mostly pending UFA, as the contract would be structured as if he were.

Also, look at Kuche's history, He is very similar to Marner. If the Leafs wanted to avoid a massive contract, sign him to his big one now at a bit less, or give him the rough equivalent on the bridge deal, as they are very similar by points (in the proceeding years of the contract signing).

May I introduce you to jock tax.... if you think a player in Florida takes home more than a player in Toronto you are Naive.

Marner’s take home on his elc wil be comparable with kucherov next season. I’m sure marner with all of his endorsement money is incorporated.

The other thing people fail to realize is how little a player even in Florida or Texas or Nevada or Tennessee (all have no state tax) actually take home after escrow agent fees 401k contribution and of course jock tax (which is not collected in Canada).

How is there tax rate any lower than Texas, Nevada or Tennessee? Are you accounting for escrow 491k and jock tax when calculating the savings? How about agent fees? Do you include endorsements into earnings and do you account for a players eligibility to file incorporated?

Taxes absolutely have something to do with EVERY deal...comparably that's 13.6% for every dollar that Toronto players have to pay versus Florida players! Kuch also wasn't quite putting up the numbers Marner is in his first 3 season. Your math is widely off if you take into consideration points per dollar with tax impacts and inflation. First 3 seasons; Marner 61, 65, 55 (so far, on pace for over 80), Kuch 18, 65, 66...slight difference no?

How are agent fees and escrow relevant? They will have to pay those no matter where they sign. Also I don't think Florida has a jock tax. Most of the games played will be in states or provinces without jock taxes.

Dude, it's really simple. Players are taxed based on where their games are played. 50% of games are home games so 50% of their salary is taxed at the local rate in this case florida where there is zero tax.

Kuch was not 1 year away from UFA. (TBH im not 100% sure about this so correct me if im wrong) I think to be a UFA you need either 7 years of NHL experience or have to be 27 years old. Kuch currently has 6 years of NHL experience (including this season, and he signed his contract last offseason) and is only 25. He was still a couple years away from UFA at the time of signing his contract.

I agree about the bridge deal to an extent, assuming Marner hasnt reached his full potential. But Marner will already be a 100 point player by this offseason (assuming he keeps up this pace). Kuch signed his bridge deal when he was a 60 point player, while Marner is matching his production in his contract year at a much younger age. He can cash in on a Kucherov-sized contract now. I dont see why he would take less than Kuch did when he is on pace to outperform him in his contract year

Slight absolutely. 4.3 million dollar? No.

Marner is actually on pace for over 100, which makes it an even bigger difference