Toronto Maple Leafs: Mitch Marner Is Worth Every Penny

The Toronto Maple Leafs have an unusual salary cap structure.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have four forwards taking up roughly 40% of their salary cap, which is a different strategy than all 30 of the other teams employ.

Though there are many reasons why a concentrated approach to cap spending makes sense, the Leafs are the first team to try such a strategy, and until they win the Stanley Cup, they are going to take a lot of criticism for their approach, which is generally what happens to innovators everywhere.

The Leafs salary cap structure has seen them hand out large, long-term contracts to Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander.

Matthews is the best player to ever play for the franchise, so he gets a pass. John Tavares is a Hall of Famer who chose to come here, and so he gets a pass.  Originally it was William Nylander who took the criticism for Kyle Dubas’ approach to team building, but his play made his critics look as ridiculous as flat-earthers, so now it’s Marner who is taking heat.

The thing is, Marner deserves every penny.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner

Criticizing Marner seems to be in vouge right now, but the criticisms are almost as bad as the ones leveled at Nylander.

“He’s overpaid.”

“He can’t drive his own line.”

Blah blah blah….. whatever. It’s all so annoying – the Leafs have a player who is, at worst, one of the five best players they’ve had in 30 years.  Realistically, you could say that other than Matthews, Sundin and Gilmour, Marner is the best player the team has had since 1990.

To me, that should supersede all complaints.

Out of those four players, only Marner and Matthews were drafted by the Leafs, so Marner is basically the second best home-grown player the team has had since the draft started in the early 80s.

And people are mad because………they don’t like the team’s salary cap structure?  They think he’s slightly overpaid? I don’t get it.

If you like the Toronto Maple Leafs, you should like Mitch Marner.  One of the NHL’s best players is on your team.  What’s not to like?

I hear so often that he is overpaid, but according to stats he’s worth $9.3 million, and being paid $10.8.  Now a $1.5 million overpayment may seem like a lot, but its hardly preventing the Leafs from getting a better roster.   Also:

a) he’s 23 and will get better than he is today, and b) it’s from a year in which he missed 23 games between injury and cancelled games and c) the cap will go up before his deal expires. d) because of the value elite players have in the NHL, you’d be hardpressed to equal the value Marner brings to the team even if you split his salary among two, three or four players.

Additionally, who cares?  The rarity of the super-star player (one of the best they Leafs have had in 30+ years) makes the overpayment a non-issue, as does the fact that the NHL is a game in which elite players drive results.  Since elite players are essentially all that matters, and since Marner is unquestionably elite, it is OK to overpay him slightly in order to have him on your team.

And don’t forget the Leafs signed him from 22 through 28, which is his entire prime. If you really did need the money that Marner is overpaid by, you could replace Holl and Engvall with AHL players and keep Marner.

Trading him is such a bad idea that it stands out in conversations about the Leafs!!

Despite injuries, a coaching change and an all-around strange season, Marner scored at a 93 point pace (one off his career high) while posting a 98 PDO (unlucky).  When Marner was on the ice, the Leafs had the puck 53% of the time, and got 55% of the expected goals.  (All stats from naturalstatrick.com, @Jfresh, and evolving-hockey.com). He was worth almost two wins, which is better than 79% of other players.   That’s in a down year, as last year he was worth almost four, which was better than 95% of players.

Yup, he’s awesome.  A legitimate superstar in a league where that is all that matters.  Mitch Marner worth every penny.