Marner finally signs

[BluPuk]

No comments on Marner's contract? 6 years at US $10,893,000.00 per.

 

I think he is well worth the money.

I was glad to see him signed. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

As expected high dollars...smart long term (personally, I think he is a better overall player than even Matthews or Tavares, and that will show itself in the long term)….

This of course, further tightens the screws on a Leafs team that is truly cap strapped, however, if the guys they have are truly "the right guys", that point will be moot and the team can just shuffle in and out support players as needed.

With Marner now in the fold, looks like the Leafs forward ranks are locked in.....but of course, next season, they have interesting decisions to make (whether by choice, or forced by the above mentioned cap crunch) on defense as they will have several impending UFA's to look over.

From a competitor's standpoint, I am disappointed to see Marner keep the Leafs' forwards strong....but looking at it from the Maple Leaf fanbase perspective, sigh of relief, your guy is back where he belongs and can now focus, along with his linemates, on HOCKEY.... and trying to keep up with the Lightning in the division!

 

[JR Ewing]

He's a fine hockey player, and it's always great to lock up your core players, but the Leafs certainly did get any sort of a discount on him, that's for sure, and the same can be said of their other top players. In the cap era, teams have always been able to sign this type of deal say "Well, at least it will get better every year as the cap goes up." I don't think that's going to happen very much for awhile, so it's an over-pay (though probably not by contract end), but not a crushing one. At least they're paying for the productive years and not his late 20s/early 30s.

 

The NHLPA took the 5% escalator year after year for the last 10 seasons, even though it looks like league revenues only grew about 1-2%, and this will really quickly bite teams like Toronto (and I think especially Calgary) in the ass. Now you get players like Jonathon Toews saying that he had to give back 18% of his salary in the form of escrow, so the salary cap should probably be something closer to $75M, and in order avoid a lockout, the media is reporting that the cap may be frozen for upwards of 4 or 5 years as a way to lower/avoid those escrow payments. It could take 4 or 5 years for league revenues to catch up to the cap. If the US and Canadian economies enter a recession, as is widely being speculated, pawn shops may have better revenue growth.

 

I think they'll lose Hyman (and a draft pick to Seattle), one of Kapanen, Johnsson or Kerfoot and one of Ceci, Barrie or Muzzin and have 2 to 3 lean years but they will be fine. Decent, if expensive, work by Dubas. Their young d-men HAVE to deliver.

[WordsOfWisdom]

On 9/15/2019 at 1:30 PM, JR Ewing said:

He's a fine hockey player, and it's always great to lock up your core players, but the Leafs certainly did get any sort of a discount on him, that's for sure, and the same can be said of their other top players.

 

Well I think the outcome here is predictable. The Leafs are going to lose a substantial amount of depth by trying to keep their top forward group together, and unless they "Pittsburgh Penguin's" this thing, I don't see it working. Matthews and Marner have to be like Crosby and Malkin for the Leafs to win this way, otherwise they've dumped too much money into these guys. 

 

Part of me was sort of expecting Marner to go elsewhere this off-season.  I never thought they had a chance of re-signing him. 

 

This is the downside to a cap system. The Leafs had to win the Stanley Cup last season. That was their "window". This is like the first season AFTER the Cup win, where the team begins to get dissected.