cesareborgia
Registered User
- Jun 9, 2010
- 852
- 772
A 2 mil overpayment not having an impact is where you lost me.You're not the only Leaf fan posting this over the top nonsense, but it really is telling that there are so few informed fans among our fanbase.
Players, especially forwards, get paid largely based on points. Given one of the best metrics of a "point getter" is PPG, since it eliminates any discrepancy due to injuries etc, here is Marner's rank in the NHL for PPG over the past two years...
2019-2020 - 14th (tied with Auston Matthews)
2018-2019 - 15th (ahead of Auston Matthews)
As well, for 2019-2020, only McDavid and Matthews were in that top 14 PPG and younger than Marner. For 2018-2019, only McDavid, Rantanen, Barkov were in that top 15 PPG and younger than Marner.
What this tells you, and this is something every Leaf fan should know, is that Marner is one of the elite playmakers in the game and one of the youngest to boot. This type of young, top end talent costs money, even if he can't crash through people like Wendel Clark and rip a wrister over the shoulder of a goalie (only mentioning this since it's the implied subtext when various mouth breathers in our fanbase negatively mention Marner and Nylander).
Now, I've said this many times before, I do believe that we slightly overpaid for Mitch and it's probably in the 1-2M range or we should have had an extra year on term. Do I think that "overage" will significantly impact us over the 6 years he's signed for? Definitely not. If you overpay for anyone, it's for your top end talent. He will continue to be a top 10-15 PPG player in the NHL, and if he resigns with us in 2025-2026 will end his career 1st or 2nd overall in points as a Maple Leaf alongside Auston Matthews. To incessantly complain over 1-2M for this type of historical talent, especially after all the crap years we've had to deal with since the Ballard days is both sad and self-defeatist. We finally have some top-end talent that we drafted and yet so many in this fanbase want to drag them down instead of enjoying the ups and downs of their 10-15 year ride.
We've had bad years in the past, terrible even. Doesn't mean we should lower our standards today because "oh but we had it much worse in the past." This is not a winner's mentality.