This is rich.
Also, there is no way on Gods green earth to offer him in a sign and trade for Tavares. If Tavares wants to go to TOR he will as a free agent. Likely to play on a line with Marner. You don't offer guys of Marners caliber for a PENDING free agent. That's literally never happened in the NHL, its not going to start now with MITCH FREAKEN MARNER. And why would Tavares handcuff his future team like that? Absolutely no sense.
I'm sure 2 years ago, many would have said there's no way in God's green earth that a GM would trade Hall for Larsson.
. And I'm sure after last year's playoffs, most Oiler fans thought their team was trending upwards.
If Nylander and Marner are signed for crazy money (or going to demand it), there is no chance that Tavares would be able to play in TO, if you want to set aside money for a big time dman.
If Tavares signs with Isles, he can sign an 8 year deal. With that 8th year, he could give a discount to bring the AAV down a bit to help with the cap. But depends what he signs for. I admit that I do think the sign and trade is a long shot, because I don't think Isles will be able to sign Tavares to a big enough discount for an 8th additional year. Plus if he takes a discount, it'll be to help the Isles so he'll want a NTC. So Leafs would be trading for a signed player with a long term contract and a known AAV, not a pending UFA.
With Nylander a RFA, his contract will set precedence on what Marner is going to ask. So if it takes $6M to re-sign Nylander (as suggested in a post), and if you think Marner > Nylander, then it's going to cost a lot to keep the 3 young forwards. And for sure you won't be able to sign Tavares when he becomes a UFA this July, unless you are willing to go with the same d core.
Now why not just keep Marner and not bother with Tavares? That is a great question. It depends on management's timeline to win. If they are patient, then keep Marner. If they feel the need to make a push sooner, then Tavares over Marner could seem like an attractive option. It would be a heck of a price to pay to win now, but desperate GMs have done some crazy things. But if management thinks Marner is close or equivalent to Tavares, then it's a moot point. My assumption is that a sacrifice would have be made in order to shore up the d (which I think is the 1st priority).
If you look back to my 1st post, I had an ideal situation where Nylander (and eventually Marner) sign for decent bridge contracts. There would be enough money to go after Carlson AND Tavares, assuming they would take some discount. This would bolster the offense AND shore up the defense, which would make the Leafs more competitive. With Carlson a UFA this year, and Karlsson and Doughty next year, leaving some cap flexibility would help.
It would be a similar situation as when PK Subban was a RFA in Montreal. They signed him to a bridge deal at a lower AAV, but then had to pay him more later. But they were getting more prime UFA years and also he had proven himself. Also the cap went up, so there was room to pay him more.
The trend (thanks to the Oilers) has been to skip the bridge contract and pay young stars big coin. There have been hits and misses. When you miss, you're stuck with an immovable contract, and handcuff yourself cap-wise.
. Hopefully he plays like his dad and bro.
