Well that's one way of looking at it, vs seeing Rantanen sign for 2m! less than his closest comparable.
Rantanen was pacing for 96 points, he only played in 74 games while Marner did a full 82. Marner had 26 goals, Rantanen had 31 (34 pace). And in the playoffs, Marner had 4 points in 7 games vs. Rantanen who had 14 points in 12 games. Frankly, the only case Marner could have against Rantanen was his rookie year, and for Rantanen that was with the 48 point Avs. 2nd and third year of their ELCs, I'd say Rantanen was better than Marner.
If Rantanen signs for 13mil after we do a deep run, I think most people would say that's perfectly good value for him. Him making more than MacKinnon would look silly, but look at what Nylander just signed for lol. And Pastrnak is a pretty good comparable, 1,8 more than him with a two year inflation and cap rising fits the pick as well. It's another thing if this is the smart play for the Avs, many people make good arguments why it's not and they are pretty good ones as well.
I just really don't like your premise of him being a hard guy to negotiate with. I don't think you can make that claim based one negotiation, when that literally happened with 4 other (maybe I'm missing someone as well) big name players at the same time. It was the market that dictated those negotiations. And frankly, I still do think that he can sign for a tad under MacKinnon. But just a tad, between Pasta and MacK.
Sooo, 12x8=96?