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2024-25 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

I can see JT taking deferred salary to get his 7 or whatever down to whatever number makes the Leafs feel good. 3x7 but defer like 9M to bring it down to a 3x4M. Heck if he is open to it, 3x10M deferring down to 3x4M to help ease into retirement and hawking amulets without any real financial worries.
 
Guilt Trip said:
They could do a sign and trade. Maybe he signs a shorter deal like Matthews and then will get another one later on. There are options to making your money.
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Shorter deal has inherent risk for the player. Look at Matthews going short term, and then this season he's up and down with a nagging injury. You never know what will happen and if Marner suffers some injury in a few years, he'll be leaving money on the table if his play drops off because of it.
 
Gonna make a prediction here:

AM34

Matthews next contract will be the first $20m+ per season contract in the NHL.

MM16

If Leafs management doesn't temper Marner's contract.... then it sets the bar for everyone else and ruins the architecture of the team. Dubas already did this with Tavares, and it set the bench mark for everyone else. I'm not saying Tavares and Marner wouldn't be able to get that money elsewhere, but once you blow the bank like Leafs already did over the past 7 years, it sets off a chain of events that make it very difficult to win (im speaking about Real Win playoffs, not Fugazi Win regular season).

Matthews is top 3 players in the league and his contract under this cap structure is a good bright line limit for this roster. They can go fill out the rest of the roster with multiple NHL calibre guys making in the range of $4m to $9m and move Tavares and Marner off the books if they demand unreasonable terms. It's what ownership/management that KNOWS how to win think like. Eg. Tampa with Stamkos, Colorado with Rantenen.

I wholeheartedly except Rogers to pay Marner everything he wants. He will have a 14 handle on his deal and the Leafs will always be a top heavy team that won't have the depth to make it when the going gets tough in the playoffs.

It may even piss off Matthews and Willy too.

And I can't blame Marner's agent for milking the franchise and fans for every penny, and every chance at team-level success.
 
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Let Marner walk? Sure. And the team will be worse, no matter what configuration of lesser lights you come up with to use his money on.

Winning the Cup isn't a crap shoot, but it's pretty close. I think the odds of the core 4 "figuring it out" and taking the team to a Cup are higher than any alternative you can conjure. Especially now that the goaltending is at least in the upper half of the league.
 
ZBBM said:
Let Marner walk? Sure. And the team will be worse, no matter what configuration of lesser lights you come up with to use his money on.

Winning the Cup isn't a crap shoot, but it's pretty close. I think the odds of the core 4 "figuring it out" and taking the team to a Cup are higher than any alternative you can conjure. Especially now that the goaltending is at least in the upper half of the league.
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Has it worked? We may be worse but maybe not. A deep playoff run would resolve all.
 
Do you think Rielly has been trying to minimize risk in his game?


Berube: For sure. We asked everybody to minimize risk with how we want to play the game. We don’t want to be a risky team. We want to be a smart hockey team with the puck, but at the same time, he can’t pull too far back. He has to play his game, and we have to let him game.


Mistakes happen, but be aggressive and use your abilities.


Is that a tricky line to walk with Rielly because he has been such an aggressive player since he was a kid?


Berube: It is. It is about finding the sweet spot, as they say.

To me, this is a telling quote: he wants them to minimize risk. I translate that into the players saying to themselves, don't make mistakes (regardless of Berube's confusing "mistakes happen, but be aggressive" line). They look tentative on offense (especially on the PP), and we've seen the results.

I think they are dealing with mixed messages.
 
That goal by Marner against the Oilers has to be the prettiest goal of the season.

Tik tak tik tak toe
34 to 22 to 23 to 34 to 16 who skates in with a sweet deke.
 
In retrospect..... it seems really a bad move by Shanahan (and I guess Treliving too) to not do something with Marner prior to this week.

Could have moved him 2 years ago, or signed him for around 12+m over the past year.... knowing new salary cap amounts will come out and there could be a substantial increase like we saw.
 
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