Speculation: 2025 Trade/Free Agency Thread

Marner is a setup guy, not a goal scorer, and is a peripheral player who doesn’t like to go near the paint. He’s quite skilled, but his numbers absolutely get padded by playing with guys who can score from his feeds. Hes also a complete mercenary, it’ll need to likely be a max contract to sign here.

None of that is what we need. We have playmakers. We need someone who can score goals, and who goes to the dirty areas.
Except when Matthew’s is out he instantly starts scoring goals. He is a legit top 10 forward in the league. He isn’t one dimensional. He just plays his role when he has a generational scorer on his line.
 
It is absolutely mind blowing that people are willing to send an offsheet that will cost the Ducks their 2026 1st unprotected. Especially for a guy that has 55 points playing exclusively on a line with Matthews and Marner all season.

I would love to have him but the combination of factors make it a dream/nightmare.

He doesn't want to sign an offersheet.
Toronto matches anything reasonable.
The offer will have to be unreasonable to get him to sign and get Toronto not to match.
So likely up to 9.1 mi.
Then that costs a 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

There just seems like way better way to spend our money/draft picks.

The reason the Blues offersheets worked so well is because they were mid guys. No team is going to let a guy they view as a top liner go for anything short of insane overpayment.
 
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I like the idea of offer sheets but someone like Knies would probably cost above 4.5 mil so it would be at least a 1st, 2nd, & 3rd. Is he worth that in value?

I like his size, he's only 22, and he's essentially scored 30 goals this season. Does he produce at the same rate away from Toronto? If the Ducks sign him 7+, he regresses to a 20 goal scorer, and the Ducks miss the playoffs, is that value tolerable?
We also don’t have our 2nd…
 
It is absolutely mind blowing that people are willing to send an offsheet that will cost the Ducks their 2026 1st unprotected. Especially for a guy that has 55 points playing exclusively on a line with Matthews and Marner all season.

I would love to have him but the combination of factors make it a dream/nightmare.

He doesn't want to sign an offersheet.
Toronto matches anything reasonable.
The offer will have to be unreasonable to get him to sign and get Toronto not to match.
So likely up to 9.1 mi.
Then that costs a 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

There just seems like way better way to spend our money/draft picks.

The reason the Blues offersheets worked so well is because they were mid guys. No team is going to let a guy they view as a top liner go for anything short of insane overpayment.
Yep you have to target players that maybe arnt getting enough playing time to warrant a certain contract

I woulda loved to get Dylan Holloway…. Was hoping we found a way to get him via trade
 
I don't believe that offer sheets have to be delivered on July 1. Let's see what happens to Marner and his $100M contract. He definitely will sign quickly and suck up cap space from his chosen team.

Regarding Knies, he definitely would fit in with this group and I'm not sure that he would view the improving Ducks situation with our young roster negatively. He may be playing in a hockey mecca in Toronto but it's not like they have any tradition of winning either. If Toronto re-signs Marner and Tavares then they may be susceptible to an offer sheet.

If Knies signs a 5 yr offer sheet then he's all setup for his blockbuster 7-8 year deal at age 27 whether with Toronto or as a UFA. I wouldn't rule out his interest in signing an offer sheet if the right one presents itself.
 
Regarding Knies, he definitely would fit in with this group and I'm not sure that he would view the improving Ducks situation with our young roster negatively. He may be playing in a hockey mecca in Toronto but it's not like they have any tradition of winning either. If Toronto re-signs Marner and Tavares then they may be susceptible to an offer sheet.

If Knies signs a 5 yr offer sheet then he's all setup for his blockbuster 7-8 year deal at age 27 whether with Toronto or as a UFA. I wouldn't rule out his interest in signing an offer sheet if the right one presents itself.

Again, he's unlikely to sign for a small overpay, it'll have to be significant, and involving significant compensation. Given our fragile place in the standings, you might very well be giving up multiple top 5 picks to sign a guy like him. And you're going to walk him to UFA status on top of that? They're not gonna put themselves in the same position as Edmonton last year ... If they have to let Tavares walk to keep Knies they will.

This is like those fans of other teams talking about giving a 9m offer sheet to McTavish, thinking that we'll let him walk over a few mil overpay because we have other RFAs coming up, and accept just a few picks in return. As if we don't have cap space, or that we wouldn't just dump a few vets to make room in the budget. It's a pipe dream.
 
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There is not a chance in hell that Marner signs with us if Cronin is still our coach.

Could not think of a (currently-employed) coach in the league that is more opposite of his personality and playing style.
 
If we get one of Marner or Boeser, you guys think it will push us over the hump into a playoff spot?

Such a massive difference between those two. I don't really want to pursue Boeser types. Surefire stars like Marner, or really quality complimentary guys - go for it. A scorer who will command tens of millions and may not score - meh we can develop those for ourselves
 
I like the idea of offer sheets but someone like Knies would probably cost above 4.5 mil so it would be at least a 1st, 2nd, & 3rd. Is he worth that in value?

I like his size, he's only 22, and he's essentially scored 30 goals this season. Does he produce at the same rate away from Toronto? If the Ducks sign him 7+, he regresses to a 20 goal scorer, and the Ducks miss the playoffs, is that value tolerable?
I think the risk is actually much higher if we succeeded in signing Marner because it would require a MASSIVE overpay to lure him out of his hometown (15-16M+). I think the risk is also very high if we were to sign one-dimensional / injury prone players like Boeser/Ehlers for like 9-10M+ a season.

At some point in the rebuild 1st, 2nd, and 3rds are less useful than getting established good young players because we are starting to fill our spots in the lineup and we want to fill the holes now without killing our future with terrible contracts. Obviously, I wished Verbeek offer-sheeted someone last season like Holloway for barely a 3rd to potentially finalize our top 9, but he didn't throw that dart. I know the likelihood of making the playoffs next year is probably less than 50/50, but the chance that the league would let us win the lottery and sign Mckenna is near impossible. So, I think it's acceptable to lose a pick potentially between 6-16 for a legitimate difference maker and begin creating a winning environment after 7 seasons of losing.

Adding Knies gives us something we don't have and that's a big physical goalscoring presence. He can play on the inside to make space for our perimeter playmakers and hopefully help our league worst PP. I know he is likely going to resign with the Leafs, but a gamble to sign someone like this (or at least make a pitch) could be a long-term difference maker for our organization. It's like the miraculous signing of Scotty or trade for Pronger making us a feel legitimate for the first time since entering the league as the "Mighty Ducks."
 
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Here’s a hot take…if Marner truly decides he wants to leave Toronto (unlike what he has said all the way up until this year) I don’t think he will try to squeeze the last dollar from a team. He will want to play for a cup contender and will still be very highly paid, but he won’t just sign for the most money anywhere.
 
Oddly I got a notification saying you were quoting me in this post, weird glitch
I accidentally copied a post of yours (not sure how) and when I inserted the post I intended to copy, yours got pasted as well. I then deleted yours b/c it made no sense to have it included. Mystery solved (for you anyway...I'm still not sure how I copied your post in the first place!).
 
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Here’s a hot take…if Marner truly decides he wants to leave Toronto (unlike what he has said all the way up until this year) I don’t think he will try to squeeze the last dollar from a team. He will want to play for a cup contender and will still be very highly paid, but he won’t just sign for the most money anywhere.
If what you said does happen, he’ll go to Vegas somehow
 

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