The market for restricted free agents is still being held up by Mitch Marner and today James Mirtle of The Athletic (subscription required) examined the situation between the young star and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mirtle believes that the Maple Leafs have been “aggressive” trying to get the contract done and are willing to get into basically unprecedented territory for a three-year bridge deal if it comes to that.
Obviously there is still a lot of mystery and negotiating through the media in the Marner situation, but as we get closer and closer to training camp things around the league have to start to resolve eventually. Mirtle writes that everyone is waiting for Marner to set the ceiling on what everyone else can earn, meaning there could be an avalanche coming whenever things are resolved in Toronto.
- The New York Rangers have hired Gord Murphy as an associate coach for their AHL affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack. Murphy spent the last five years with the Philadelphia Flyers and has been in the NHL for nearly two decades as an assistant coach. In fact, he worked alongside new Wolf Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch in Philadelphia, meaning the two will have no trouble getting on the same page this year.
- There are lots of questions surrounding how Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green will deploy his lineup this season, so Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet sat down with him to try and get some answers. Green is excited about getting players like J.T. Miller and Micheal Ferland into their group this season as they can play both checking and scoring roles. Quite simply, when asked about having enough talent to surround Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat on the top two lines Green responded “I do.” Green also admitted that he still hasn’t spoken to Loui Eriksson about the comments about how the two didn’t get along 100 per cent, though he is planning to when they next see each other.
Trade marner done with this hard negotiations with these kids that don’t care about the team at all and only want to get a max deal. Marner will make 10 million a year in sponsorships staying with the leafs certainly wouldn’t make that playing elsewhere
Nobody else in the NHL has money or fans
The Marner situation is overblown by the media. He will get signed the first day of the season. Leafs don’t have enough cap space right now to sign him. But they will on the first day of the season as that is when they’ll be able to put Horton and Clarkson on LTIR. They’ll then have over $13M in cap space. More than enough to get Marner signed.
$11 million for Marner , $2 for a defenseman. if Edmunson becomes free agent that would be nice move.
12 mil gets it done !