Kucherov’s Contract and How It Impacts the Toronto Maple Leafs

The Tampa Bay Lightning have extended Nikita Kucherov contract and his contract could be pivotal in the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Last year, Kucherov was phenomenal for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ rival, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 25 year old had his best season in the NHL. In 80 games played, he registered 39 goals, 61 assists, 8 PPG, 36 PPP and a 14 S%.

After the outstanding season that he head, Steve Yzerman, the general manager of the Lightning knew that he needed to extend him. Kucherov’s current deal was set to expire next summer. So, Yzerman got to work. Yzerman, Kucherov and Kucherov’s representatives worked out a new 8 year deal. For the next 8 seasons, Kucherov will earn 9.5 million USD AAV.

Roughly a three hour flight from Tampa, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in a similar situation. The Maple Leafs need to re-sign William Nylander and Mitch Marner. With the Kucherov contracted signed and sealed, his contract has implications on what the financials could look like for Marner and Nylander.

Yes, Auston Matthews needs a new contract as well, but you’d have to figure that he’d earn more than Kucherov. Matthews will most likely get a similar contract to what Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers was given. McDavid is in the first year of his new contract and is earning an AAV of 12.5 million USD.

Before we go down that rabbit hole, let’s pause. Let’s jump back to Kucherov, Marner and Nylander for the duration of the post.

Based on the performance of Marner and Nylander, you’d have to figure that they wouldn’t earn as much as Kucherov. My prediction is that they’d earn a little bit more than what Winnipeg Jets forward, Nikolaj Ehlers signed. Ehlers had signed a 7 year deal worth 6 million USD AAV. I figure that Nylander and Marner would earn something in between both Ehlers and Kucherov. So, perhaps that would be 7 million or 8 million USD AAV.

Comparing Ehlers and Kucherov to Nylander and Marner

Let’s look at the stats.

Earlier, I spent some time researching Ehlers, Kucherov, Marner and Nylander’s stats on NHL.com and hockey-reference.com. If you look at the tweet below, you’ll see that Marner and Nylander’s production from last season was better than Ehlers but lesser than Kucherov’s.

Personally, if I were Kyle Dubas, I’d give Marner 8 million AAV for 7 years. In his short time in the NHL, Marner has proven to be prolific 5×5 and on the power-play. He’s shown to be a strong playmaker and if he is on the same line with John Tavares, his numbers are only going to rise. If you look at Ian Tulloch of The Athletic’s post on Tavares, he shows that when Tavares plays with a winger that the winger will post higher offensive numbers.

In terms of Nylander, I’d give him an 8 year deal. Mainly because I’m sure the Toronto Maple Leafs would rather have the trio’s contracts expire at the same time. With an 8 year deal, the Maple Leafs can offer Nylander slightly less. I think he’d get 7 million AAV.

Some Toronto Maple Leafs fans will say that Nylander should get the same contract that Ehlers received, but I wouldn’t. If you look at the Winnipeg Jets and compare them to the Toronto Maple Leafs, you’d see that Nylander means more to the Maple Leafs than Ehlers means to the Jets.

Next: Opening Night Predictions

We shall see what happens. Dubas is the man with the plan and I’m a blogger. At the end of the day, he controls the show and will make the best decision for the franchise. In all likelihood, Dubas won’t spend more than what Kucherov was offered on either Marner or Nylander. This means that Toronto Maple Leafs fans can sleep easy and don’t need to go onto capfriendly.com at 3 am. Sleep easy my friends.

stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference, research from capfriendly.com