Quoting: Chiller
Its a dick move by the player, aka marner. Him and his camp have played this little bull**** game for months and its getting enough. I am not even talking about a discount. I am talking about fair value. Marner wants matthews money because he has to prove he has the biggest dick on the team and the most money supports that. 10Mx8 as reported today is hella fair on both sides. Oh you want a shorter term deal, well every year less should reduce the fee by 500K. More if it takes him right to being a UFA. Those are facts, and yes if marner disagrees that is his right, but he looks like a greedy moron.
Also, if your Marner... why. You are the local boy, fan favourite, loved by everyone and now you are inssecure you arent the Best player on the team and are trying to compensate for that. Most of it is rumors but with the reports and his agent and dad saying things. Thats his team and if he allows them to say it, he approves it. This cant be about money, can it? Every endorcement, every side deal he has done, every commercial he is making more money on those than any AAV the leafs can offer. He wins a cup here, even after he retires or moves teams he will be the new Wendle Clarke making millions a year on advertisements. If he is offended he isnt the face of the franchise, too bad, you can be the most liked player of all time, well could have. Now i think even if he signs this will leave a sour taste in peoples mouths
It's a business, this isn't personal and emotional and shouldn't be. Any professional athlete spends their entire young life preparing for what is usually a short career and then in the 30's have to start life again finding a new career or something to do...most of us will never relate to that feeling but can tell you first hand it is a very tough transition when you've been told for 20 years...just focus on hockey, don't worry about school, friends or anything else. Players financially should make the most of it as their are way too many stories of players short changing themselves and then having a career ending injury. The fans fault the players and frankly that is the wrong person to fault. The fans should fault the ownership...the ownership makes a ton of money prior to each Marner like player and will make a ton money long after each player is done. It's their jobs to manage the situation, and just like what went wrong with Nylander last season, we're seeing it again with Marner. There are patterns with the Leafs management so if any of the fans decide to get emotional, the last person is the player, they should be pointing to the Leafs management given how recently we saw this movie play out with Nylander after they award Matthews one of the largest contracts in the NHL and award Tavares.
All this BS about sponsorships and such is not a unique thing to Toronto. Hockey players don't make anywhere close to what people think for endorsements/commercials. It can be a few million a year max; nowhere near what Basketball or Football players make (they can actually make more on endorsements then their salaries) so it's not as much of a priority as their salaries are for hockey players. Furthermore, Marner can go to any big market team in the US and get the same level of endorsements and sponsorships. Yes, Toronto is up there with the big market teams for endorsements in the NHL but they are not alone or unique. A few of the highest paid players for endorsements are Toews in Chicago...also Crosby and Ovy are up in the top 5 as well. Again, not a unique thing to Toronto.
Fans get emotional over these situations and understandable because it's not our careers and not our money on the table. However, there is nothing wrong with a player trying to maximize his pay in the small window they have to do so. Marner should use all the tools he has to force the Leafs hand. He can easily go to a team like Colorado who has cap space and frankly is in just as good as a position if not better to win a cup in the next 5 years as Toronto.