Kane came into the league D1, Marner D2.
Kane had seasons of 72, 70 and 88 points.
Marner had 61, 69 (nice...) and 94.
In Kane's 88 point season (09-10), there were 5.68 goals/game and he finished 9th in scoring.
This year there were 6.02 goals a game. With 94 points Marner finished 11th in scoring.
...
The difference is that Kane got 28 points in 22 playoff games that year and won the Stanley Cup, where he scored the cup winning goal.
He also won the Calder Trophy in his rookie year.
His 5 year 6.3 million dollar deal signed in 2009 was 11.1% of the cap - Stan Bowman smartly got him signed before he went to RFA.
11.1% of a projected 83 million dollar cap in 2019-20 is 9.13, but that doesn't consider RFA years.
Marner is great and I desperately want to keep him - and he's not worth losing if he wants 10.25 and your offer is 9.7...
But if he wants as much or more than Matthews I'm shopping him.
Especially if Rantanen, who I think Marner is better than by the most paper thin of margins, takes 9.5 or less.
Centers like Matthews get more, and while he is the closest comparable to (future first ballot Hall of Famer) Patrick Kane that doesn't mean he is, was or will be better.
If I'm Dubas, I mean I don't insult him by lowballing him at 8.5, and he's not worth losing over 500k, but my high number is 10.25, and he takes eight years.
If I could get him at 9 I would let him take 5 years.