Toronto Maple Leafs: Mitch Marner vs Cole Caufield Contracts

This past Monday, the Montreal Canadiens announced that they had signed one of their young stars Cole Caufield to an eight-year extension, which led to Twitter battles about the Toronto Maple Leafs handling of the Mitch Marner contract.

Fans from across the NHL have chimed in stating that former general manager Kyle Dubas caved to the Toronto Maple Leafs superstar forward in contract negotiations.

During the summer of 2019, Toronto hockey fans sat around for their hometown playmaking winger to sign a long-term deal, but had to wait into training camp before the deal was done.  Marner would eventually sign a six-year deal that would come with a cap hit of $10.903 Million per season.

At the time of the signing Marner became the highest paid player in the NHL for the 2019-20 season at $16 Million and had the seventh highest cap hit.  The contract came four years after he was drafted and after three full seasons in the NHL.  In his first two seasons he collected 130 points in 159 games while also being named to the All Rookie Team before breaking out with 94 points in his contract season.

Marner’s agent Darrin Ferris would tell reporters that while being a restricted free agent his client had received two offer sheets, however Marner wanted to stay in Toronto.  To say Marner had a bit of leverage in negotiations would be an understatement.  His eventual contract would take up almost 13.4% of the Toronto Maple Leafs cap hit, but the assumption was, that with the continued rise in NHL revenue that percentage would drop drastically.

Unfortunately, with the world shutting down, the league salary cap did not rise as expected and he still carries a 13.1% hit on the club.  Still, the Leafs managed to ice a Cup Contender in every single year of Marner’s contract.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Marner Has Earned His Contract

Despite his critics, Marner has still earned his salary as in the four years since signing the deal, he has collected 330 points in 266 games which equates to 102 points over an 82 game schedule.

The Toronto native was named as the top right winger in the league over the previous two seasons and is currently a finalist for the Frank J. Selke award as the league’s top defensive forward.

Where does Caufield come into this talk?  With his current extension at eight years with a cap hit of $7.85 million, many are arguing this was the type of contract that the Toronto Maple Leafs should have got Marner to sign.

I don’t think you can argue this is a good or bad deal for either Caufield or the Canadiens.  Like Marner, Caufield is a right winger and is signing a deal four years after he was drafted.  Caufield has a lot of offensive upside, but the Canadiens are also banking on potential as the tiny winger has played just 123 career games, while collecting just 53 goals and 84 points.

Part of Caufield playing less games is due to him burning a year of his contract when he signed out of college late in the 2020-21 season.  However, he has yet been able to play a full season as he missed 15 games in 2021-22 and then another 36 games this past season.  Due to injuries, he has yet to collect more than 43 points or 26 goals in a season.

Both players came into the league on rebuilding teams, yet Marner has never missed the playoffs while Caufield only got there when his team had already qualified by the time he joined the Canadiens. (stats hockeydb.com).

Caufield’s 53 career goals now takes 9.5% of the Canadiens cap hit, which is nearly three-quarters of a percent higher than William Nylander.

The Montreal Canadiens were able to lock up the league’s top 40-goal scorer to never score 30 goals, but he is nowhere comparable to Mitch Marner.