2025-26 Roster…too soon?

  • Xenforo Cloud has upgraded us to version 2.3.6. Please report any issues you experience.
  • We are currently aware of "log in/security error" issues that are affecting some users. We apologize and ask for your patience as we try to get these issues fixed.
Funnily enough I'm sure Connor would be the first one to tell you that he's had a bad year and needs to be better regardless of who he's playing with

I'm sure he would. He's got an exceptionally high standard for himself. Doesn't change the fact that he's played with inconsistent linemates all year and none of them think or see the game like him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Giovi
I will make it easier. Teams that Marner would not sign with.

Nashville
Isles
Kraken
Yeti’s
Blues

Probably can’t:
Panthers
Avs
Stars

Rub one out on the idea that Marner is the next Hawk if you want but it ain’t happening. Would you pay him 14x7? He will have plenty of 12x7 offers.
 
I will make it easier. Teams that Marner would not sign with.

Nashville
Isles
Kraken
Yeti’s
Blues

Probably can’t:
Panthers
Avs
Stars

Rub one out on the idea that Marner is the next Hawk if you want but it ain’t happening. Would you pay him 14x7? He will have plenty of 12x7 offers.
These teams absolutely can't.

It's Toronto and then Chicago. The betting odds had Hawks as 3rd favorite after Toronto and Vegas. Vegas can't.

Chicago, LA, Detroit, Minnesota, Washington are pretty much the viable options if he goes FA.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2025-03-08 at 9.49.05 PM.png
    Screenshot 2025-03-08 at 9.49.05 PM.png
    158.5 KB · Views: 1
Name them.
assume a $95.5 million cap, and assume marner wants to be paid like matthews. only edmonton, utah, montreal, st louis, ottawa, tampa, and colorado have less than $13 million in unallocated regular season cap space going into the offseason on paper. every single other team is in a position to take a pass at him today if they could and if they had any mind to, and they wouldn't even have to clear any salary.

assume a more conservative $90 million cap. we basically know that it's gonna be $95.5, but just for the sake of argument. that still leaves minnesota, toronto (lol), washington, los angeles, calgary, carolina, columbus, and winnipeg with enough open cap to offer $13 mil assuming they make no other signings/extensions. then, accounting for the fact that you can go 10% over the cap in the off-season, the teams in a playoff spot today who could reasonably plan to offer marner $13 mil july first additionally includes: ottawa, edmonton, dallas, new jersey, vegas, and florida. all could add him at that number and move salary around to be compliant for october. that's 14 teams all much better than the hawks, all at liberty to make a move on marner from a financial point of view. number only goes up if you consider non-playoff teams that are also better than the hawks.
 
Last edited:
assume a $95.5 million cap, and assume marner wants to be paid like matthews. only edmonton, utah, montreal, st louis, ottawa, tampa, and colorado have less than $13 million in unallocated regular season cap space going into the offseason on paper. every single other team is in a position to take a pass at him today if they could and if they had any mind to, and they wouldn't even have to clear any salary.

assume a more conservative $90 million cap. we basically know that it's gonna be $95.5, but just for the sake of argument. that still leaves minnesota, toronto (lol), washington, los angeles, calgary, carolina, columbus, and winnipeg with enough open cap to offer $13 mil assuming they make no other signings/extensions. then, accounting for the fact that you can go 10% over the cap in the off-season, the teams in a playoff spot today who could reasonably plan to offer marner $13 mil july first additionally includes: ottawa, edmonton, dallas, new jersey, vegas, and florida. all could add him at that number and move salary around to be compliant for october. that's 14 teams all much better than the hawks, all at liberty to make a move on marner from a financial point of view. number only goes up if you consider non-playoff teams that are also better than the hawks.
If you're signing league minimum guys to fill out their rosters? It does not compute in these discussions a lot of times how Hawks fans can't see that the Hawks are a destination franchise. He's signing 7 years and I'd venture to say he'll be in the playoffs 6 of those years and a contender for a cup in 3-4 with Hawks. Compounded by the fact this is an O6 franchise, they spare no expense, and it is frequently if not always in the top 2-3 favorite road destinations for NHL players in surveys, and that's before you sell him on the vision of the Bedard-led franchise and being the Hossa.

Florida, Vegas, Tampa, Chicago, New York Rangers, Dallas, LA are the leagues destinations.
 
If you're signing league minimum guys to fill out their rosters?
every single one of those teams, if they thought marner could plug into their lineup well, and if they really wanted to, could move around the money to make an offer, even in a pessimistic cap forecast world. 5 of them would have $9+ million leftover for signings and extensions. the only team on your list in this post without the money to make a move on him is tampa.

the rest of your post is completley irrelevant to the argument i've presented which you haven't properly engaged with.
 
every single one of those teams, if they thought marner could plug into their lineup well, and if they really wanted to, could move around the money to make an offer, even in a pessimistic cap forecast world. 5 of them would have $9+ million leftover for signings and extensions. the only team on your list in this post without the money to make a move on him is tampa.

the rest of your post is completley irrelevant to the argument i've presented which you haven't properly engaged with.
Your argument was completely irrelevant. The dude said there were 15 teams who could afford him AND will have a better core through his prime. The limiting factor here isn't AFFORDING him, it's having a better core through his prime. There aren't 5 teams with a better outlook over the next 7 years much less 15.

Positive Outlook + Able to Afford + Chicago Destination= Way more chance than you think. I asked him to put names to the 15 teams. I doubt there are 3-5 all things considered.
 
The dude said there were 15 teams
he said a dozen. wrong halfway into the second sentence, great job.
who could afford him AND will have a better core through his prime.
marner is in his prime now. he very likely wants to win now. i named you 14 teams in the playoffs today with the money to afford him. almost every other team outside the playoffs with the money to sign him are in a better position to compete within the next two to three years. i sincerely doubt marner is looking at this on a seven year time scale.
I doubt there are 3-5 all things considered.
you just named 4-5 in your last post (depending on how you feel about the rags going forward).
 
Let's look at Vegas as an example, or whoever you'd like if you think I'm cherry picking. They decided they want to offer Marner. They have 47 million in in 9 forwards, 32 million in 7 D and 0 dollars in 0 goalies for a total of 79 Million. Cap at 95.5.
They need to sign 4 forwards and 2 goalies for 16.5 million. The average goalie duo costs 8% of cap. That's 7.5 Million. We are apparently letting Adin Hill walk for... reasons?

So we are down to 9 Million for 4 forwards. To make a Marner offer work pick one of the following:
trading Eichel, Hanifin, Peitrangelo, Theodore, or Stone (EDIT: Hertl, too)
Stone retirement

The point is the actual path to making that big an offer to Marner is not attractive or viable for most all franchises that would be attractive to him.
 
Last edited:
Let's look at Vegas as an example, or whoever you'd like if you think I'm cherry picking. They decided they want to offer Marner. They have 47 million in in 9 forwards, 32 million in 7 D and 0 dollars in 0 goalies for a total of 79 Million. Cap at 95.5.
They need to sign 4 forwards and 2 goalies for 16.5 million. The average goalie duo costs 8% of cap. That's 7.5 Million. We are apparently letting Adin Hill walk for... reasons?

So we are down to 9 Million for 4 forwards. To make a Marner offer work pick one of the following:
trading Eichel, Hanifin, Peitrangelo, Theodore, or Stone
Stone retirement

The point is the actual path to making that big an offer to Marner is not attractive or viable for most all franchises that would be attractive to him.
vegas is funny because of the likely candidates, they have the most history of doing exactly these kinds of radical moves to make big acquisitions if they deem it beneficial.

either way, the point isn't that every single one of the 14 teams i mentioned will actually be in on marner come free agency. the point is that adding mitch marner is, to varying degrees of efficacy, a viable action item for every gm of each team i mentioned to plan an attempt at this offseason. i am sure some small percentage of them will make the decision that it is worth pursuing, and i think almost every one of them will be a more attractive destination for mitch marner personally than chicago. it's a pretty simple calculation to make. the smallest shortlist of potential landing spots you yourself gave included 4 teams (la, min, det, was) beside chicago, each of which makes infinitely more sense from marner's point of view (with the possible exception of patty kane and the dead wings).

i don't think chicago landing marner is impossible, but i wouldn't bet any amount of money on it.
 
vegas is funny because of the likely candidates, they have the most history of doing exactly these kinds of radical moves to make big acquisitions if they deem it beneficial.

either way, the point isn't that every single one of the 14 teams i mentioned will actually be in on marner come free agency. the point is that adding mitch marner is, to varying degrees of efficacy, a viable action item for every gm of each team i mentioned to plan an attempt at this offseason. i am sure some small percentage of them will make the decision that it is worth pursuing, and i think almost every one of them will be a more attractive destination for mitch marner personally than chicago. it's a pretty simple calculation to make. the smallest shortlist of potential landing spots you yourself gave included 4 teams (la, min, det, was) beside chicago, each of which makes infinitely more sense from marner's point of view (with the possible exception of patty kane and the dead wings).

i don't think chicago landing marner is impossible, but i wouldn't bet any amount of money on it.
I think we just disagree on the attractiveness of Chicago as a destination then.

LA I concede, good destination. Washington is having an amazing season but they were left for dead and might return there soon. Surely we can agree our outlook over the next 7 is better than Washington's. Minnesota themselves are worried about their own star getting to Chicago through free agency. When Elias Petterson was good he was rumored to want to join the Hawks at our absolute bottom.

They signed Bertuzzi and Teravainen who were completely viable and attractive top 10-20 free agents in the NHL last year with very little hope for competitive hockey this year or next.

There's an awful lot of evidence that stars signing in free agency with the Hawks over the years has worked out for them. Panarin, Campbell, Hossa, it isn't delusional to see history repeating itself.

Not to mention the Hawks have been soft launching pursuits for these guys through the media. Rantanen especially before that whole fiasco. But Friedman and local beats mention it all the time.
 
I think we just disagree on the attractiveness of Chicago as a destination then.
we certainly disagree on how attractive chicago is right now for a player like mitch marner.
Surely we can agree our outlook over the next 7 is better than Washington's.
sure. could we also agree that the opportunity to play on a prospective playoff team with the greatest goal scorer in nhl history, even at the tail end of his career, is a more attractive proposition over the next year or so than playing for a team that would be in on mckenna without him (and might be with him)? so then you have to think, which one is marner looking at? i believe this is where our disagreement lies. i think marner would very much like to sign a 5-7 year deal with a team who will compete now, and the years 5-7 outlook are of secondary or even tertiary importance to his decision. neither of us really know of course.
They signed Bertuzzi and Teravainen who were completely viable and attractive top 10-20 free agents in the NHL last year with very little hope for competitive hockey this year or next.
i remember both, much like the martinez and brodie signings (and the earlier aa and dickinson deals), were understood at the time they were signed to be slight overpays deemed acceptable because cap doesn't matter to the hawks right now, and no ufa of consequence wanted to sign for the team at market value. i bet the hawks tried to over pay guentzel last offseason, and i'm sure they will have to offer marner a fairly significant over pay if they want to even be in consideration, particularly if, just for example, one of dallas, vegas, or florida dissapoint in the playoffs and decide to move heaven and earth for him.
There's an awful lot of evidence that stars signing in free agency with the Hawks over the years has worked out for them. Panarin, Campbell, Hossa, it isn't delusional to see history repeating itself.
campbell signed to a blackhawks team that missed the playoffs by 3 points and already had 7 members of the team which would win the cup in 2 seasons. hossa signed the next year to a team that just went to the western conference finals. i don't even need to remind you what kind of team panarin walked into. if you want to see how 'stars' signing in chicago has worked out in recent history, just look at seth jones.

i don't know why i'm supposed to take talk of davidson bringing in marner as anything more than a remote possibility seeing as how it seems he's struggling to bring ryan donato to terms as i write this.
 
Last edited:

Ad

Ad