After months and months of negotiating to no avail, the team that plays down the street from the Maple Leafs has finally locked down their homegrown superstar to a long-term contract extension, and the Leafs need to follow suit by locking down a homegrown star of their own.
The Blue Jays have signed star first basemen Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year, $500M contract extension that will keep him in Toronto for the remainder of his career. The deal is the richest in Toronto sports history.
Vladdy has spent the first 6+ years of his career in Toronto with the Blue Jays and he will now, presumably, spend his entire career with the club.
The Maple Leafs also have a homegrown star on their roster that is in need of a new contract following the conclusion of this season -- Mitch Marner.
This is Marner's ninth season in the NHL and each of them has been spent with the Maple Leafs. It's the only team he's ever known since he's made the league. If the Leafs were to lose him for nothing, it would be one of the biggest failures in team history.
Marner's last deal was signed in September of 2019 and it was a six-year, $65.358M deal for an annual average value of $10.9M. It was, at the time, about 13.4% of the salary cap.
Guerrero Jr. was obviously in a different situation than Marner and had more leverage on the club due to the fact that there's no salary cap in baseball, but Marner's next contract is going to be a hefty one as well -- not $500M hefty, but hefty.
Guerrero's $500M total value contract is the third largest in MLB history, behind only New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto and Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, who signed $765M and $700M deals themselves, respectively.
The richest contract in the NHL in terms of AAV currently belong to Marner's teammate Auston Matthews ($13.25M), Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon ($12.6M), and Oilers superstar Connor McDavid ($12.5M).
It's not crazy to think Marner could slot in somewhere between MacKinnon's number and Matthews', especially considering their deals were signed years ago and the salary cap is continuing to rise. The Leafs winger seems to be hitting free agency at a good time for his bank account.
There has been noise surrounding Mitch Marner and his contract situation all year, but it has not affected his play at all. The Leafs winger is on pace for over 100 points this season and very well may be putting together his best season yet.