Team: 2020-21 San Jose Sharks

Initial Creation Date: Dec. 3, 2020

Published: Dec. 4, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Kane/Marner goal comparisons over the last 3 seasons:

Kane:
2019-20: 26 goals
2018-19: 30 goals
2017-18: 29 goals

Marner:
2019-20: 16 goals
2018-19: 26 goals
2017-18: 22 goals

Obviously it's not just goal totals -- Kane's primarily a goal-scorer and Marner's primarily a playmaker and had far more points in each of the 3 seasons than Kane, and Marner is no question the overall better player. I'm going to refrain from a common assumption I see soooo many after a statement JUST because the player is young: "and he's only getting better!!!" NOT NECESSARILY. Look at Johnny Gaudreau. Look at Jeff Skinner. I'm not saying those players are now bad players, or Marner's play will fall off to the degree that those players' did. I wouldn't be trading for Marner as a Sharks fan in this proposal if I seriously thought he'd be at risk of doing that.

BUT.

I don't know if Marner will be worth the ~11mil per year player he's making... 2018-19 he was worth every penny, but last year... and I'm nitpicking here... he seems to be worth around 9-9.5mil a year.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND MY ARUGMENT: this wouldn't be a big deal or that big a risk to hold onto and see how his play goes in the coming years and just hold onto him.

BUT.

That's a problem for the Leafs who already have two other players making over 11mil a year. A team in the salary cap era can deal with 2 of those at most and have enough depth to consistently contend for cups.

Getting Kane and Labanc for the price of Marner here spreads out the depth to a bonafide top-line player in Kane and an arguably top-line player in Labanc, who's an absolute playmaking wizard (like Marner is too) on the power play... who... and if we're playing the Marner game of only getting better with age as I see so many fans make... would also then be getting better with age.

Anyways, that's the argument. Obviously there's rebuttals to it (from SJ's perspective too to not do this). But just putting the proposal out here to think of how a roster would look like for both teams with this deal.