The players now have all the leverage. They can pretty much say to Dubas "This is the amount of money I'll stay for. Take it or leave it." And that's the only choice Dubas has. Take it or leave it.
When they were rfa's, DUBAS held all the leverage. "This is how much we're willing to pay you. Take it or leave it. Go play for peanuts in Europe if you like". When that happened, there was a literal online army of people using weird stats to make our players appear better than they really are so that they can rationalize their boy Dubas's overpayments.
If I tried making comparisons to players in Florida or Tenessee, I had thousands of posters SCREAMING at me about taxes. My inbox would be flooded. There were so many posts bellowing about taxes that the entirety of hfboards would usually crash for hours on end if I even thought about making comparisons to cities with no state tax.
And yet here we are in a thread where people are making direct comparisons to players in Florida and Tenessee. Not one PEEP about taxes. Nothing. Because these arguments only exist to push narratives.
In those old threads, proven 20 goal/60 point leaf players were being equated to proven 34/70 point players. Why is THIS no longer happening in reverse? Why are we no longer dismissing lower leaf stats as "less pp time"? Aren't the leafs /60 stats still better than these comparables people are making? WHY HAVE THESE ARGUMENTS DISAPPEARED??????
If Nylander is this good again next year, he will not accept a penny less than 11 mil. I'd be surprised if Matthews takes less than $15. And Marner (who sees himself as Matthews equal) is signing a year later where it is expected the cap to increase quite a bit. So he'll also get around $15, but it will be like 2% less cap percentage.
That's what will happen. You CANNOT just pretend all these arguments you've been making for years no longer apply.
Meh he didn't really have the leverage. He did what you said he should do with Nylander. Still had to pay $7mil a year.
You say he had all the leverage, but you do realize he's GMing in the biggest hockey market. Do you think the random fans out there would care about the salary cap/financials? No they would have been like sign him. Do you think ownership group would have been OK with Matthews and Marner sitting out a whole year to 'stick it to them?' Especially when they were considered cup contenders? This would be TONS of money out of ownerships pockets due to reduction in jersey sales etc., let alone not making the playoffs and getting that revenue.
Let's say he holds out with Matthews, I personally always thought he was going to be the offer-sheet target out of the 3, so it is possible they are actually paying more, cause they weren't letting him walk. Marner, obviously he doesn't get offer-sheeted, so lets say he does the Willy thing, sits him out to Dec. 1. Maybe he signs a bridge deal at probably close to 8-9mil per year. That contract would be up, and he's making even more now.
If those players want 11 or 15mil, they will get it. And there is nothing the Leafs can do about it besides sign it, or let them go. If they got them on a cheaper price before, it wouldn't change what they are going to get in their UFA contract.
I am not sure why you are so focused on the past contracts. It is done, they are signed. They have been a good team the whole time during their contracts.
I am happy those players are on the team.