On last week's rendition of NHL on TNT, studio analyst Anson Carter proposed a potential trade to noted Toronto Maple Leafs fan Paul Bissonnette.
The trade pitch consisted of the Toronto Maple Leafs sending Mitch Marner to Colorado in exchange for Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen.
Both Rantanen and Marner are unrestricted free agents at the end of the season, and although the trade almost certainly isn't a realistic one, let alone a good idea for the Leafs ,it seemed like more of just a fun trade proposal
. It's also worth noting that Bissonnette, a Leafs fan, said he would not make the deal.
NHL on TNT proposes trade involving Toronto Maple Leafs superstar
Mitch Marner, who becomes a UFA at the end of this season, is having a fantastic season. Through 25 games played thus far, he's currently sitting at 9 goals and 27 assists, good enough for a 118 point pace for a full 82 game season - which would blow his current single season career high in points of 99 out of the water.
There are some worries in Leafs land that Marner is playing too good and is pricing himself out of staying with Toronto. With all the slack he has faced during the playoffs during his Leafs tenure, there's almost certainly no chance he takes a "hometown discount" and lets the Leafs off easy in contract negotiations.
Rantanen, on the other hand, is also having a great season for Colorado. With 35 points on the season, that puts him only one point behind Marner. Rantanen, as noted, is also a UFA at season's end,.
There are reports that the star winger believes he could fetch $14M annually on the open market, but with superstar Nathan MacKinnon only making $12.6M annually, it may be a hard contract to justify from a front office perspective, though one assumes players and agents are perfectly able to understand the concept of inflation and the cap going up.
Fellow superstar Cale Makar also only makes $9M. Is Mikko Rantanen $5M better than Cale Makar? No, but it also makes zero sense to compare contracts signed in different seasons on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
Marner and Rantanen both play the same position, have similar points totals over the past few seasons, and will likely command similar contracts this offseason.
In theory, the trade makes some sense, but at the same time, Marner and Rantanen are different types of players. Marner is great defensively, while Rantanen is average at best, and Rantanen is more of a goal scorer, while Marner is more of a playmaker. With Auston Matthews and William Nylander already on the team, it doesn't make a ton of sense to add a pure goal scorer like Rantanen into the mix as well.