I agree we can't put ourselves into cap hell again when we re-sign these players.
But the problem being Marner should never have been at nearly $11 mil for buying just 2 years of UFA status. Dubas botched that deal badly because a year earlier Marner camp was asking for the Draisaitl deal of 8 years at $8.5 mil, which Dubas turned down, while according to reports on HNIC that $7.5 mil was the teams offer range based on current comparbles at the time.
Then he allows Marner coming off 60+ point seasons to put up 90+ season playing along side Tavares and his $11 mil, and then signs Matthews first to his $11.6 deal and Marner suddenly has all this new leverage and says Matthews is my only comparable and where is my $11 mil also as I can put as many points or more than my teammates.
Marner should really be locked up for 2 additional years at $8.5 mil beyond his current deal. Then based on his past deal we would be talking raise based on that figure and not raise based on $10.9 mil current.
If you look at the timing of the Matthews signing, it came fairly quickly after the Nylander deal.
I'm guessing Dubas didn't want to have to face down both Matthews and Marner at the same time, so caved to Matthews and just gave him what he wanted. Which, although I don't like it, is a comparable contract given to other elite players of his caliber coming off their ELC.
Rumours of intervention from above regarding the Marner contract may or may not be true. If Dubas caved to ownership, that's on him. I'm pretty certain that he wasn't going to win another lengthy standoff after caving to Nylander at the last minute. Stupidly promised not to trade him in order to get him to sign.
Who does that?
Who gives a verbal promise to the player that just held out longer than anyone in modern NHL history that they won't get traded?
And then
actually keeps the promise.
Dubas kept that promise to Nylander despite enormous pressure to trade him over the years.
I wonder how Nylander will repay him?
