You're right, he got 15.9% of the current cap and 14.66% of the cap when the contract actually kicks in. Again though, do we really have to act like teams and agents didn't know/have an estimate of what next seasons cap hit would be roughly before this season started when we all knew it'd raise quite a bit with 2 expansion teams and 2 huge US TV deals since the cap stopped going up from covid? I know you'll say it doesn't matter because contracts get signed for the current cap which just keeps proving our point our players are out for money and nothing else waiting for the cap to rise officially to sign their new deals.Draisaitl got 15.9%, and while he's a very good player, especially on the PP, Marner is a better player at 5v5 and and the PK. I don't think Marner is going to get 15.9%, but he will likely justifiably get in the 14-15% range. Many good teams would pay him that.
Yes, we should have pushed harder to sign Marner last offseason if it was possible, instead of playing these stupid games with one of the best players this franchise has ever had.
Yes it has. It just hasn't got us a cup yet. People need to learn the difference.
Nobody needs to go. That's an emotional reaction. Measuring "progress" strictly by round wins is shortsighted. Matthews, Marner, and Nylander all outperformed their contracts by a similar amount, and players don't get extra money now because they were worse when they signed a fair contract last time. That's still looking backwards anyway. This should be about what helps us the most going forward, and that's keeping Marner. And if we did have to get rid of somebody (we don't), that's keeping Marner over Nylander.
That won't necessarily make the depth scoring better and more consistent than what we've had though. It will just make it more expensive. Mid tier UFAs is where money gets thrown away. And even if you did make the depth better, it's still unlikely that the team overall is better, because you're losing a massively impactful piece of the team in the process.
But hey, if we had 3-5m for depth players, we could sign brand new tier of depth that we've never before experienced... Like Mikheyev! Oh wait we already had him... Like Bunting! Oh wait we already had him... Like O'Rielly! Oh wait we already had him... Like Kerfoot! Oh wait we already had him... Like Foligno! Oh wait we already had him... Like Engvall! Oh wait we already had him... Like Domi! Oh wait we already had him... Like Bertuzzi! Oh wait we already had him... Like Laughton! Oh wait we already had him... Etc.
And not only have we already had that calibre of depth, the rising cap is going to give us opportunities to sign these kinds of players in UFA without getting rid of one of our best players.
We have 8 forwards on 2m+ contracts. Of the 14 forwards that Florida used in the playoffs, 8 were on 2m+ contracts.
No games are being played with Marner. He was asked if he wanted to waive his NMC when we could've got a damn good player in return for him since he won't sign a new deal. Only 1 person playing games here and it's the same player/agent who did the same crap during his last contract negotiation.
1st round exits non stop is not getting closer to the cup, especially when Dubas and now Tre have given up a lot of 1st and 2nd round picks and do a lot of cap gymnastics to try and help them get closer. We're near the end of this cores glory years and them just making the playoffs is considered getting closer to the cup while making zero progress in the actual playoffs? These excuses need to be stopped for this core. They got enough participation ribbons.
An emotional reaction is saying blow the core up after 2-3 years of round 1 exits. 8 years of the same stuff is more than enough time for fans to see this isn't working and have nothing to look forward to. This is the NHL. Winning rounds in the playoffs is the main goal and what you have to do to win a cup. The fact you try and make excuses and say that's shortsighted when fans are expecting more playoff success from this core is ironic. I'd be fine with keeping Marner over Nylander. 1 has to go and idc who it is as long as it's not Matthews. Nylander has been the only one to sign for 8 years and has become a 40 goal scorer and 90 point guy making the least amount of the top 3 though.
Paying proven and consistent 40-50 point scorers does help the depth scoring be more consistent. Instead we just hope and pray that we can sign someone to a 1 or 2 year deal at league min and hope they have a miracle season and then complain about depth scoring when they don't. Losing pieces of this core doesn't impact our team like you say. Every player in this core has missed time and our team has looked fine with 1 of them out of the lineup almost every time and that's replacing them with an AHL player who have been sitting in the press box all year. Yes I know their record without Marner is the closest to .500 but 7 of those 17 losses came during that stretch where the team gave up on Babcock that led to his firing. The team plays a simpler game and is less predictable when we lose one of these guys and aren't forcing the puck to these guys.
That list is pretty funny. Bunting the only 1 who we can say was 1 of the few league min guys who had his miracle seasons getting a chance to play with Matthews before falling off. Mikheyev, Engvall, Kerfoot and Foligno are interesting ones since I don't remember these guys being known for their offence so idk why we'd think they'd help the depth scoring. Foligno especially. Got 11 games total out of him and 0 goals and 5 assists for a 1st round pick I believe. Bertuzzi was only her for 1 season and had a pretty good season after a slow start. O'Rielly was great in his 24 total games we had him for. Laughton has been here a week. Domi has been a great playmaker here but needs to start scoring more.
The cap rising doesn't free up much cap when we're just paying the same guys who took up all our cap even more money, and then also having to pay other guys who were on team friendly deals after trades or on ELCs. Knies, McCabe and Woll are the 3 that come to mind here. We have 7 forwards making 2+mil towards our cap. 4 of them are the core who are making 11+. Did Florida also have 4 of their 8 making 11 mil+? Barkov and Tkachuk are the highest paid and they made 19.5 combined.