It appears as if the Toronto Maple Leafs may be headed towards another difficult RFA negotiation.
Earlier this afternoon, TSN’s Darren Dreger joined Leafs Lunch and proceeded to drop a significant bombshell: He expects the negations for Mitch Marner‘s new contract to extend past July 1st and, in another surprising twist, that Marner will likely meet with other NHL teams during the RFA offer sheet interview period that begins on June 26th.
Dreger says on TSN1050 that he expects Marner's camp to take negotiations beyond July 1st.
— #1 A'Ja Wilson Fan (@Account4hockey) May 28, 2019
He says he expects the Marner to visit teams starting June 26 in the RFA offersheet interview period.
Dreger says the Leafs will have to make an aggressive offer: 10+,10.5+,11+
Naturally, Twitter melted down soon after.
Marner’s intentions, when viewed in a vacuum, are not entirely outrageous. He’s a 21-year-old superstar coming fresh off of a 90-point season who is merely looking to maximize his earnings, after all. This is completely understandable for someone in his current position. But the matter of debate here, however, centres around the concept of whether it is Marner himself who wants to go this route, or if this is a narrative being driven home by those in his camp.
Either possibility, at the very least, is plausible.
Marner’s agent, Darren Ferris, has repeatedly made public comments midseason regarding his client’s upcoming negotiations, even going so far as to criticize the Maple Leafs for apparently “lowballing” Marner on the very same day that Auston Matthews signed his own massive extension.
Paul Marner, Marner’s father, is guilty of some candid outspokenness as well, revealing to Jonas Siegal of The Athletic in a piece back in December that he believes his son should be paid in accordance with fellow-superstar Matthews and, in addition, should be receiving consideration for the Maple Leafs’ open captaincy.
Regardless of whether or not these comments are being driven by Marner or his representatives, there is clearly a sense of resentment towards the Maple Leafs organization by those within his camp, for one reason or another. This will not be an easy negotiation.
Of course, the possibility of an offer sheet is now at play here. Marner would likely need to command an AAV upwards of $11 million in order for Kyle Dubas to deem it unworthy of matching, therein gifting the Maple Leafs with a total of four first-round picks from the team attempting to pry his young star away.
If Marner’s demands indeed reach the stratosphere of which they are expected to, would accruing that level of draft capital truly be so bad?
It’s a bridge few fans would like to cross. Unfortunately, it appears they may have to soon.
Marner is a terrific player bearing game-breaking abilities who can be held responsible for a large chunk of his team’s recent success. That is without question. But the possibility of paying him $11 million per season – a number typically reserved for elite centres and defencemen – is a gaudy one. Such a notion has been expanded upon in great detail on a number of occasions, most recently in this fantastic piece by The Athletic’s Ian Tulloch.
Needless to say, the tone of today’s reports clearly indicate that these negotiations will be long and arduous. But it seems to be a guarantee at this point that we’ll hear more from Marner’s side of things in the weeks to come.
Thanks for reading!