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DrGuru

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Forum: Trade Machine ProposalsMay 15, 2022 at 11:05 p.m.
Thread: Fresh Starts
If the Leafs make this trade, they are done. They were afraid of a max contract offer from Arizona to Matthews last time he was going to be a free agent. I am not saying there is no chance Matthews re-signs in Toronto if they offer him something comparable to what he gets on the open market, but they are going to have a difficult time matching 16+ million if Arizona goes that direction this time around. Given how aggressively Matthews negotiated last time, I can only imagine that he will test the market if he doesn't get a huge offer from the Leafs right off the bat.

Marner is the guy who is going to stay forever so long as they pay him. I think part of the reason why negotiations were so difficult last time around was because Matthews contract upset the salary structure, and Marner viewed himself as comparable. He could have signed an offer sheet with Columbus, among other places, but didn't want to give up term.

So this sets up a possible scenario where the Leafs lose Marner in this trade, two years later Matthews walks, and then they are stuck with a declining Pietrangelo and (if they extend him) Tavares.

Not to mention, it is incredibly unlikely that Pietrangelo waives his NMC. He takes a huge pay cut by going to Toronto because taxes are higher, and it isn't like the Leafs are in a better position than Vegas. Vegas missed the playoffs in a season where everybody got hurt.

I made a similar proposal, but with Eichel instead of Pietrangelo. I won't re-iterate the entire trade word for word since the thread is still up on the first page, but the summary of it was that if Toronto is sure Matthews is going to walk, they swap him for Eichel because Eichel is cost controlled for four more years instead of two, so it extends their window. Vegas does it because it updates their roster, and with both Stone and Pietrangelo getting older, their window is shorter than Toronto's. whose core is still young.