But if he steps up and they win a round or two he may demand too much from the Leafs and sign elsewhere and they lose the asset for nothing but cap space. That’s extremely poor asset management.
Draisaitl signed September 2024. Matthews August 2023. Pasta March 2023. Nylander January 2024. Teams must have some kind of idea what the cap will be. Guessing the agents are the ones wanting to wait longer with the remaining UFAs.
I agree, that's probably not what they're waiting on. But don't kill my hope man, even if it's just a 1% chance.
Just yesterday Friedman said Nylander gave the Leafs a number and waited for Leafs to cave and give it to him. Ferris knows the Leafs don't have the balls or stomach to allow Marner to walk for nothing so they will eventually cave and open the vault wide open.
I think teams probably have a sense well before that of what the numbers are going to look like.
If I had to bet, this is what I would bet on. Kyper and Lubrun were right when they said the ask is around $14m. No numbers have been floated around lately but Leafs ceiling of $13m was mentioned a few weeks ago. Guess we wait for the Marner propaganda machine to make their next move.I agree, that's probably not what they're waiting on. But don't kill my hope man, even if it's just a 1% chance.
Re. him demanding too much, I think the risk of signing him now and regretting it a couple of months later if he sucks in the playoffs again but we're stuck with him is much greater. I'm guessing his number is so high as it is that it can't go much higher anyway.
Losing the asset for nothing sucks, but signing him could end up being worse, much worse even. Should have moved him after the MTL series.
That’s what I would do if I had those options. The Leafs have to pay the tax to retain the player.
Yes, that’s why I doubt they’re waiting for that announcement.
Yeah if that's true, I tell his agent to f*** off. Before I do though, I might ask him what happens if Marner gets 4 points in a 7 game 1st round exit, is his ask still 14m?
IMHO he's been better than good, just not good enough to make me forget how his performance in the playoffs has been the proverbial lunchbag letdown, especially the last 2 series.
What they should have done or could have done doesn’t matter. They made a decision to keep Marner and try the core with a new coach and a few changes to the roster. So far, so good, but the bottom line is, that decision will be judged on the spring and not before then.I agree, that's probably not what they're waiting on. But don't kill my hope man, even if it's just a 1% chance.
Re. him demanding too much, I think the risk of signing him now and regretting it a couple of months later if he sucks in the playoffs again but we're stuck with him is much greater. I'm guessing his number is so high as it is that it can't go much higher anyway.
Losing the asset for nothing sucks, but signing him could end up being worse, much worse even. Should have moved him after the MTL series.
As you said, the paying customers love watching him do his thing in the regular season. They will bitch and complain in summer if he/they wilt in spring but they will stroke that cheque to MLSEL in fall. And of course they will buy lots of jerseys. Rinse and repeat.
There really is no other plausible outcome than this. The only certainty is that the number has to be higher than Nylander's number and lower than Matthews' number. It probably ends up at something like $12.9 million per season.
And what a great day it’ll be when we pay Casper the Gho… I mean Marner Draisaitl-money! Fully deserved
IMO $12.9 would have been done by now if he'd accept it. Guessing they are holding out for closer to $14m. Will be interesting to see how long it takes Tre to softens and by how much. Marner being the highest paid Leaf won't go over well and puts added pressure on Marner in the playoffs. Ferris may win the battle but he may lose the war for Marner.
There is very little chance they will wait until the playoffs, it really makes no sense that they would put themselves in that bind.
Maybe, depends on what they were hoping for. The teams right about where they've been every year in the standings. The goal differential sucks, the special teams suck, the only noticeable improvement is goaltending which has nothing to do with the coach or the core. Emphasis on D is good I think but like you said, we won't know until the playoffs if anything has really changed.
I can't imagine any circumstance where Marner will get more than Matthews. It will be less.
We should change his sweater number to 666 while we're at it.
That's the way I see it as well. I guess people are worried he might put up PPG in the playoffs, and then demand 16m AAV or something, and we will have to give to him because "we can't let him walk for nothing, that would be poor asset management". And then we'll be like man, we should have signed him for 14m when we had the chance. LOL.
