The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that they have signed unrestricted free agent Patrick Marleau to a three-year deal, $18.75MM with the average annual value set for $6.25MM. Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston tweets he has a full no-movement clause included in his deal. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun tweets that the deal will include a large signing bonus, just as the case was for Carey Price’s deal earlier today. He will receive $14.5MM in signing bonus money, split up with $7MM coming to him in the first year, followed by $4.5MM in year two and $3MM in the final year of the contract. The three-year pact means that Marleau will be 40 during the last year of his $6.25 contract.
Reported earlier on PHR, the 37-year-old wing was considering several offers, including a two-year offer from San Jose, but the rumor was that Toronto had the most impressive offer and Marleau took it. Having spent the past 19 years in San Jose, he will move on to the young, rising Maple Leafs squad and team with the young core of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner to help them take the next step. With this move, it seems obvious that the Maple Leafs plan to go all-out in hopes of capturing a Stanley Cup while they have their young core under rookie contracts. It is likely Marleau will be paired with both Matthews and Nylander as their first line.
For San Jose, the veteran team loses one of its most important players in their history. Marleau accumulated 508 goals and 1,082 points in his tenure with the Sharks and was rarely hurt, having played every game for the last eight seasons and only missing a total of 31 games in his career, according to Johnston. Although the team was able to lock up38-year-old Joe Thornton yesterday to a one-year, $6.5MM deal (although that deal is not official yet), the team lost out on one of their top goal scorers and will be hard-pressed to replace him, especially after the team struggled in the playoffs and were bounced in the first round. Those two have been playing together for the last 12 years.
I like Marleau. Babcock likes Marleau too.
$6.25 million is a lot, and they have him going into the 2019-20 season. Someone tell me why they offered so much money? I fee that 19-20 season they’ll have a big fat contract they can’t move, and will need to.
Wont layers like Kapanen, Liljegren, and Grundstrom look for raises by then?
You dont give 38 year olds 6.25 mil a year. Good job San Jose
Toronto’s already trying to screw up their rebuild
Yeah I’m a Leaf fan this one is a head scratcher
Dreger said year 1 was $8.5, year 2 is $6, and year 3 was $4.25m.
How does this work? Will those numbers be counted against the cap each year, or will it be that $6.25m AAV? Asking for a friend
6.25 each year
really? Then what were those numbers Dreger tweeted?
And are all contracts like that? The AAV will always be counted against the cap?
NHL has always done (or at least for the last few years) AAV against the cap. A lot of contracts, in every sport, are front-loaded or back-loaded (i.e. its not a flat rate throughout the duration of the contract). NHL deals often tend to be more highly front-loaded so the actual money owed in the latter years is less. Doesn’t make a difference in the cap, but sometimes the contracts are easier to trade/easier to accept by the current team because the actual money the team has to pay the player is significantly less than what the cap hit is.
Those numbers are the actual salary owed to Marleau. Teams generally front(or back) load deals to lower the overall cap hits since it’s the AAV that counts towards the cap.
Overpay
Don’t mind this signing. While I don’t like 3 years at 6.25 on the salary cap it’s not a big deal. Leafs can afford to overpay at the moment as their big guys are still on rookie contracts. Marceau is a great addition especially since after JVR they have no depth on the LW. Bring valuable experience, leadership to a very young team not to mention a consistent producer throughout his career. Hasn’t missed a game since 2008-2009 and just came off a year scoring 27 goals. Even if he does regress third year won’t be too much of a headache as Leafs can buyout the contract.
I’m pretty sure his 6.25 goes towards the cap every year even if he’s bought out since he’s so old. That’s going to be pretty big problem since their guys won’t be on entry level deals and are going to wanna be paid
He’s 37, so he’s under the 35+ contract rule. No matter what happens to him (buried, bought out), Leafs are still on the hook for his contract.
If it comes down to Toronto needing to rid themselves of Marleau’s contract in the third year, then I have good news. Trading bad contracts happens all the time. Lou and Shanahan are quite crafty and I’m confident they will be able to make room, if need be, to sign someone due for a raise. In the meantime, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to young core who will benefit greatly from being around Marleau day in and day out. On the surface his conditioning appears to be superhuman, having only missed 31 games in 19 years. I would like to believe some of his conditioning methods and habits will rub off on the young guys. He may be getting paid to produce but it’s everything else he brings that would make the hypothetical situation of the Leafs wanting to move the third year of his contract, an easier pill to swallow.
Good post dude. I like you.