What do you think of Marner’s deal and fit with Golden Knights?

What do you think of Marner’s deal and fit with Golden Knights?

i’ve never been more excited to walk over to the side seats or the Jonright Lounge here in the expansive Studio 9 chat with my friend the sockless Craig Button who is pumped to chat about all the crazy deals that happened on Monday ahead of NHL free agency you surprised so many deals happened the day before
uh yes and no i I would say yes because you know some of the players that did sign there was some maneuvering that had to happen you know we think about Marner we think about the situation in Florida with with their free agents but at at the same time no because teams are trying to get their business done and you know all of a sudden you players hit the open market and the bidding goes up and the prices go up and you might price yourself out if you don’t act today
so Mitchell Marner the uh the Marner era in Toronto is over he signs the exact same contract Miko Rantin signed with your former team the Dallas Stars eight years 12 million on the AAV thoughts on the deal thoughts on the move in general his fit in Vegas
well I mean Mi Mitch is one of the very best players in the National Hike i think first team all-star rightwing for a number of years so there’s the dollars for Mitch Mner are are not out of whack in any way shape or form i mean he made just under 11 million i mean so it’s a million dollar raise and he he’s a frontline player and for the Vegas Gold Knights that’s a that’s a big get you know you add more skill to your lineup you add a player that can kill penalties be on the power play good two-way sulky trophy finalist i mean this is a pretty good get for Kelly Mcrim what does it mean for the Toronto Maple Leafs bottom line is is you’re not replacing Mitch Marner these these types of players specifically Mitch Mner you don’t go find them and the fact of the matter is is after nine seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs he’s out the door and yeah you can say you have cap space and they do and this puts Brad Trail into a spot where he’s got to go try to find you know to other players to fill out the roster but you’re not replacing Mitch Mner you could put other players on the roster you you can have them play in that spot fact is Mitch Mner’s top-notch player and I think we’re not surprised that Mitch Mner has left yeah but but it to me it’s a situation is we’ll evaluate this over time Jay and go why why did Mitch Marner have to leave
and why did the communication seemed to break down throughout the year he really seemed to have a chip on his shoulder like you know we’re probably never going to know the whole truth right but it does seem like there was some sort of communication breakdown and it didn’t just happen in the last few weeks
no it didn’t and and when you you think back to last year and you know was Brad had been in the job for a year yeah but like could it have been avoided with Brad saying hey Mitch
we want to sign you i I don’t know why the Leafs wouldn’t want to sign Mitch Mner because you can look at the team and go okay you know Mitch Mner is the reason you didn’t win well if that’s the case be careful because I don’t think that’s the reason you and me have talked about this i told you we got lucky in Dallas in 1998 because the St louis Blues won to pin everything on Brett Hall
right
well Brett Hall not only won with us in 99 he went to Detroit and won in 2002 you can win with Brett Hall you can win with Mitch Martyr bottom line for Toronto is they weren’t deep enough to to win with Mner and Matthews and all those guys that’s on the management that’s not on the players let’s I want to get to some of the players that Brad Tring did bring in on Monday but I first want to talk about Evan Buchard the four-year extension 10 a.5 million on the AAV so they go shorter term i I not sure they were able to digest maybe a bigger number over eight years how do you feel about that four-year term for Bousard do you like that window for the Oilers
well well I like the window for Evan Bushard he’s not going to leave money on the table no and the players now like they’re looking and let me be specific here about Conor McDavid he said at the end of the year in his media availability he said “I want to win and I want to win again i want a chance to win again and again.” And like he’s not interested in just winning he wants to be in a competitive window wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see Conor McDavid sign a a a shorter term deal because I if you’re wired to win and and you want to see what’s going on around why do you want to be pot committed to an organization if you don’t see that there’s light at the end of the tunnel so I think for Evan Bushard finding the sweet spot knowing that he’s not going to leave money on the table he’ll come out of this four-year deal and he’ll be able to take advantage of a higher salary cap at the end of it but this is a frontline player yeah this is a really top-notch player for the and to me the the dollar in the AAV it’s commensurate with his with his contributions and how good a player he is
now Bill Zitto told our friend James Duffy on the ice after the Panthers won their second cup he’d like to sign all his three bigname free agents nobody thought he could pull off all three he did pull it off he pulled it off at big time brad Marshan will be 42 years old when he begins the last year of this contract he signed today uh five and a half billion on the AAV 6.1 million on Aaron Eblad’s AAV for eight years that’s an incredible deal and then of course Sam Bennett’s eight times eight does it shock you at all that Bill Zo was able to get all three done
you know what shocks me is that Bill Zto was in the GM of the year that’s what shocks me
i think everybody was pretty shocked about that
yeah so I mean now he goes and and when James asked them on the ice following the Stanley Cup victory in game six and Bill said “Yeah.” And James went really like like and and sure like you you do there’s a there’s a certain measure of doubt you know when when a general manager says this but but how about if I break it down this way Jay so neckl is 29 years old yeah
okay and and so if we look at it he was coming off of 7.5 million why don’t we just say the first four years are worth 32 million $8 million per okay and I you know now he says well I want a little bit of term so now in the last four years when he’s 34 35 36 37 it’s $4.2 million a year does that not sound pretty reasonable that’s how you get
sounds more reasonable certainly yeah
yeah i know so we look at 6.1 and go “Oh my god.” Like but you know if the player wanted term and the team was not willing to give term and they couldn’t find a number well now you find a different way so split it up in force yeah and so and
and the tax situation despite what Gary likes to say Jay the tax situation nobody went to Florida when the tax situation was the same for 20 years because it was a not a good place to be
right now if you’re deciding between one team and another it does
no it doesn’t you know what matter no do you know what matters is that you got a chance to win
yeah but
the players are
they got to get paid too right
and Brad Marshan especially he’s already won wait a second we know they’re getting paid but they also want to win the true competitors Jay are in it to win it fair okay it’s not about the taxes
it is a little about the tax
very listen
they say that it’s not about the taxes is there are lots of ways in professional sports to mitigate against tax payments fairly but the bottom line is there’s no state income tax in the state of Florida period you can’t say it’s not an advantage it is an advantage i’m not saying it’s the deciding factor but you can’t say it’s nothing
i I didn’t say it was nothing i just said for 20 years when they had no tax in Florida nobody went there
well maybe they who was running the team at the time
well that’s what I’m saying like there’s a lot of factors that go into it now Brad Marshian is very similar to me to Chris Tanov chris Tanov signed a four a six-year deal last year at $4.5 million right so what they did is they lower the AAV give them a little more term on it and and that’s how you get to a lower AAV brad Marshine gets his money Chris Tanniff gets his money who knows where they’re going to be at after four years but that’s how you work it in that’s how But when you have a really good situation with your team and a really good environment and really well-run ownership president manager coach and everything now you can work these deals the class of the NHL you could easily say right
oh there’s no question i mean there’s nobody that should say that the Florida Panthers aren’t the clear-cut favorites to to win the Stanley Cup in 2026
and to your point about the term thing Craig I w I wonder about that do do you see that being something there’s nothing in the CBA this new CBA CBA that says you can’t do that that you can’t stretch players out for longer term to bring the AAV down
so do you think that’s just going to start happening now with more and more players deals like Marian
but I it happened with Chris Taniff last year here in Toronto
it happens yeah
that’s part of trying to lower your AAV and so the player gets a little bit more in terms of dollars so it if Brad Marshan let’s just say Brad Marshian was going to get 28 million let’s just say four years times seven right right and I’m not trying to lower it or anything but now all of a sudden he gets a little bit more than that yeah right by getting a little bit more term so he gains a little bit more the team gains a little bit more on the AEV which allows him to manage their cap
and the cap’s going up and it’s going up and we know exactly what it’s going up to
let’s get back to the Leafs because we have to craig we’re obligated brad Tree living talked about changing the DNA he can’t you know the big move to me would have been getting Bennett would have been getting Marian obviously he can’t do that now do you worry now that the big change for this Leafs team will simply be MNER leaving or should be kind of excited i like some of the moves that tree living i like Nick Wah like getting him basically at the last second i like Machelli i know he had a tough season last year but he’s got a lot of potential I think
yeah he does you don’t you don’t you don’t have the productivity that Machelli had and then you fall off he had a tough year that doesn’t mean he won’t come back and rebound nick Wah helps out the Vegas Golden Knights and at the same time helps out the Toronto Maples yeah so I don’t think it’s about July 1st i don’t think it’s about July 3rd i think now it’s about Brad living in the Toronto Maple Leaf management being prudent and being prudent means you might have to be patient because you do not know what opportunities may present themselves we know what opportunities are going to be there for free agency he knows what opportunities may be there right now in terms of trades but there’s going to be a lot of other opportunities are going to arise and if you do not position yourself the Toronto Maples are in no risk of missing the playoffs they have top goalending they have really good blue line you have your first line of N Matthews and Knander that that’s is that’s an excellent first line yeah
so now you now you give yourself a little bit of time to work with it and with that time you’re giving yourself that opportunity to see what becomes available and that to me that to me is is what he’s got to do yeah
if you’re trying to make the playoffs and you got like Ottawa last year had to get Lena Hall because they had to improve that because they had to start off the Leafs aren’t in that position neither the Edmonton Oilers right so I would say for both of them
just be patient don’t be thinking you have to get somebody there tough for those fan bases but I but I definitely see your point you know what’s tougher for the fan bases going out in the second round of the playoffs fair enough fair enough um and I love the the nice AAV and I love the Tavvaris deal obviously for the Leafs so yeah a tiny bit of business for Brad over the last few days you know I mean he’s in a tough spot again and you you get Nicolola Wah and he’s a good third line center in my view you know you get the nice contract when when JJ Purka signed his deal you go okay there’s the NY contract matt Baldi had signed a couple that’s the NY contract that’s what he got the comparables become pretty clear and I think that now opportunity with a little bit more salary cap room let’s see where it goes but do you think Seth Jones was going to be available
that’s a great point
do you think Brad Marshian was going to be available
and not only was Seth Jones available there’s a lot of people who are down on Seth Jones as a player and then he gets to a really terrific team and you say “Oh no actually he was a good player he was a good player all along.” Right
bingo bingo speaking of good players someone close to uh close to where you hang your hat Mr rasmus Anderson interesting comments uh our Pierre Lebrun reporting that Rasmus would only consider signing an extension if he was traded to Vegas is there any limit to the number of players that Las Vegas can sign craig yeah well well I mean if I’m Craig Conroy and and and and I hear that well well good for Rasmman to be honest
yeah I suppose I know what I’m dealing with like all you want to do you you don’t want to be dealing with uncertainty you want to know like okay so Rasmus has come out and if that’s according to Pierre and I trust Pierre fully so if that’s what he’s come out and said well now Craig Conroy can deal now now he can say okay where am I at
but I don’t think that that box is in Craig Conroy
i don’t think so either
well I’ll tell you why a couple years ago the the report was that Noah Hannifan would only sign in Tampa Bay
that’s right
right and Craig Conroy said well we’ll wait we’ll wait and see i think that uh Tampa Bay thought that maybe there was an opportunity uh that you know they could underpay sure and Craig says “I’m not taking an underpayment.” Yeah craig Conroy has proven that he’s got the chops to stand up to the challenges of being a GM he did it in his first year and and I don’t question that he he’ll have that raz he he can get a boatload for Craftsman Anderson at some point during this season regardless if he’s signing an extension or not because teams will want that type of player and you see some of the deals that defenseman have signed in the last few days and it’s the price is just going up for these guys right
well I mean Pvorov signs for 8.5 time 8 you can’t tell me that Rasmus Anderson can’t get that kind of money
as you as you talked about earlier comparables hey free agent frenzy what tell me what you’re doing tomorrow who are you hanging out with what’s going on
well I’m going to hang out with 37 of my very closest friends in hockey we’re going to be over in studio 6 james Duffy will be leading the way harveys will be sponsoring it which will be some Harvey’s I bet
but you know what we’ll have a great opportunity to talk about a lot of different things and you know obviously some of the bigger names are off the off the board but it won’t prevent us from being able to you know what it’s a great opportunity we get to talk hockey yeah we get to talk about hockey we can talk about teams what they could use what they couldn’t use where they’re at we can talk about Olympic team we got lot six hours we’re not going to run out of things to talk about we’re not going to run out of things to talk about the new slogan for free agent frenzy

What do you think of Mitch Marner’s deal and fit with the Golden Knights? Are you ok with a shorter-term contract for Evan Bouchard? Does it shock you the Panthers signed all three big free agents? Should Leafs fans worry the big change is Marner leaving? Is there a limit to the number of players Vegas can sign? TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button joins SC with Jay Onrait to discuss.