The Toronto Maple Leafs ended the Marner saga with a 6-year deal.
With the 6-year deal worth $10.893.000 annually per year, the Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off the biggest heist in franchise history; fitting Marner, Matthews, Nylander, and Tavares under the salary cap. How about that, folks?
With the last big extension of the summer, the Toronto Maple Leafs are ready to take the NHL by storm in the upcoming season, no doubt. But is the Marner contract the right way to go?
Here at Editor in Leaf, some staff writers asked themselves the same question. The long-awaited end of the Marner contract saga was received with a lot of mixed emotions. That’s why for this weeks roundtable the writing staff discussed their reactions on the Marner deal.
My Take
Just when you think a magician has no tricks left, he pulls another bunny from the hat, In Dubas’s case; another extension of a big player. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the trick was good. Heck, it wasn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Marner is still a Toronto Maple Leaf, relieved even.
The contract, however, is horrible. Not to mention it took Dubas 3 month’s to cave and end up paying Marner what he wanted anyway, seriously? He could’ve spared everyone nerve-wracking moments and just offered him the amount from the start.
Dubas kept his word, he managed to sign them all under the salary cap, by doing that he surprised probably even himself, but he definitely dropped the ball on the last one. Marner is a $9.5 million per year winger at most, no growth in the salary cap is going to make that go away. It’s not a team-friendly deal now, nor is it going to be, ever.
One 94 points season is not enough to justify the amount Marner will now be paid the coming 6 years. Compared to contract like those of Kucherov, Kane and even Pastrnak; the Toronto Maple Leafs are overpaying Marner.
The fact to the matter is that Dubas now comes short almost $2.4 million per year to further improve the team to make them contenders, every year.