I'm fairly comfortable predicting that Marner will have the highest AAV of all of them, unless his contract is a bridge deal <= 3 years.
Marner is using Matthews his teammate as his comparable, and I highly doubt any of those others are, but rather will fit within their own internal team salary cap structures and depth charts, when their $$ come in. IMO
Toronto just pays more for their players than other organizations. I'm expecting Marner to have a double digit AAV on a term of 6 or more years, which would land him in the top 10 highest.
I'd be tickled pink if Dubas could get Marner on the Drasisaitl deal [$8.5 mil X 8], but the realist in me just doesn't allow me to believe that will be the outcome.
It is true those other RFA's aren't using Matthews as a comparable. They are using Marner though. If Marner is using Matthews then yes, so are they.
Leafs were the first to deal with so many players that performed amazingly during their ELC. Someone posted a tweet about most points during their first 162 (I forget the exact number but I'm sure a lot of you coming out of the GDT for that night remember the post) games and Marner was in the top 10 and the only reason Nylander wasn't was because he came into the lineup during the tank year. If you ignore his short first stint on that crap team he was right up there with Marner using 16 / 17 and 17 / 18. Luckily Nylander didn't have a 90 point season in his third year or we'd have 4 guys making 10+ mil. He had to take 6.9.
What do players on team friendly contracts with the exception of Gaudreau have in common? Their contract became team friendly after the fact. They didn't have the ELC production to get paid like Marner. Schiefele , Pastrnak, Barkov, Mackinnon....all these guys put up Marner / Rantanen / Point numbers after they signed their second contracts. Not during their first.
You reference Draisaitl yet everyone thought he was overpaid when he first signed his contract. The contract is only a steal in hindsight.
You have to go back a decade to a guy like Bergeron to get clean evidence that the Leafs overpay. He took 5 mil for back to back 70 point seasons. Those were different times and different economies. Doesn't apply to the new wave of superstar youth. If a player puts up Bergeron numbers on their ELC today they are easily getting 8 mil minimum.
Now we finally have legit evidence with Rantanen and Point.
Result? Same trouble as Dubas and the Leafs.
As far as Matthews goes, his comparables due to his potential and skillset were McDavid and Eichel. People will agree the ranking is 1.) McDavid 2.) Matthews 3.) Eichel. Matthews contract falls in line with his comparables. When another team has a Matthews to sign you will see it's a myth that Leafs overpay their players. Very convenient to claim Matthews is overpaid when we're the only team who owns a Matthews. Common sense says any team would overpay to keep him.
Leafs just signed Kapanen and Johnsson to reasonable contracts. If others don't agree their contracts are reasonable that's okay because what matters is the professionals agree. All these players in the same tier as AJ and Kap have similar cap hits: Compher, Buchnevich, Kerfoot, Vrana, Burakovsky, Dzingel, Ferland etc.
All these signings should be familiar since they occurred recently. I find it hard to believe AJ and Kap aren't making 4 million+ if I am to agree with your post.