Edited Jun. 2, 2021 at 4:30 p.m.
Ignoring his poor Playoffs, you can't take his regular season stats away from him by saying "he plays with Matthews"..
Marner put up similar stats with Tavares (also a star) but most importantly he did it with Bozak and Van Riemsdyk
As for the St. Louis comparison, he signed 2 contracts in the salary cap era. The first was at age 28 and was 6 years at 13.46% of the cap. This would be $10,969,900 per year over 6 years today... Keep in mind that this contract also took him to the age of 35 so it missed most of his prime, which Marners deal is not.. Despite this, the value is actually $900k above what Marner is being paid..
If you are however referring to his final contract, I dont think it is fair to compare a guy signing at the age of 22 to a guy signing at the age of 35 but nonetheless.. St. Louis signed a 4 year deal worth 9.47% of the cap, which would be $7,718,050 per year today. He would only have been making about $3M less than Marner and you get a 35-39 year old St. Louis vs a 22-28 year old Marner...
To blame Dubas for any of this mess is a bit crazy too. Not only does he have to sign his stars young because that is what the league is dictating now, but not even 3 years ago people were praising Marner for being the only "playoff player" the leafs had while jumping all over Willy. This year is now the complete opposite. This isnt to defend Marner though, because when you are being paid like he is then he needs to perform. My point is to defend Dubas as he made all the right moves.
Just a horrible take tbh..