Dallas can't afford Marner.

Not as long as Benn and Seguin are on the books.

A rising cap, almost 16M in capspace this summer, almost all of their stars already signed and Benn + Seguin 2-3 years away from UFA. I think they can fit him in just fine to be honest

I just looked, they have 69 million and 13 players signed. Adding Faska's money pushing it up to 16 million and 12 players. By adding Marner you have 13 players signed but only 5 million to sign 9 players. Can not see them doing that.

With Marner and with Faksa in Toronto it would actually leave them with 8M and 7 players to sign. It's worth noting that of those 7 players 3 would slot in on their 4th line and another is a backup goalie. Not ideal but it's not a terrible situation either. I'm sure the Leafs or another team would be open to trading for players like Marchment or Dadonov as well.

Dallas does this and their defense is left in shambles. They wouldn't be able to re-sign Tanev (or any top-4 caliber defenseman), they'd lose their best defensive prospect, and they would lose a 1st Round Pick that could be use to bolster the defensive group in their pipeline. All for a guy that Dallas doesn't need. Finished 2nd in the league in scoring this year and haven't had any issues scoring in the postseason. The trade doesn't make sense for Dallas, even before you factor in that Marner is about to want a Matthews-level contract next offseason. Stars decline, and to be honest it's really not much of a conversation.

Now I just feel bad for Dallas' future. Imagine taking one defender out of their system that has never played an NHL and the result is leaving their blueline in shambles. They better win the Cup this year because it's all downhill from here 😆

I mean, before picking up Tanev this deadline Ryan Suter was playing consistent top-4 minutes. After this trade you have here, Dallas has the following:

Harley-Heiskanen
Lindell-
Suter-

Lundkvist is a 7th defenseman, at best, Hakanpaa is genuinely awful at everything except for the PK, and they'll have no money or pipeline depth to go out and fill out the rest of the right side of their blueline with legitimate talent.



Or they come back next year, regardless of what happens over the next month, with a top-5 offense and the following blue line:

Harley-Heiskanen
Lindell-Tanev
Suter-Bichsel

None of that happens if there is an extra $11M on the books though. I know how desperate Leafs fans are to get rid of Marner, but that contract (and his NMC) is going to make it pretty damn near impossible to do so.

Funny thing is you say Leafs fans are desperate to get rid of Marner but at no point did anyone question the value in the deal, rather the affordability of Marner, which is still a very doable situation for the Stars despite you simply wanting to argue