Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle isn’t worried about teams sending an offer sheet to Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner this offseason.
“Our salary-cap situation is set up that we can defend any of those threats with no worry at all,” Dubas said during a rare scrum with reporters after the Leafs practised at the MasterCard Centre on Monday.
“I know (offer sheets) have become a huge topic of late, but I spend zero per cent of my time having any worry about that.
“If a team wants to go down that path with us, that’s the way it goes, but our goal will be to continue to work with these players. The players have both stated they want to be here and it’s our goal to continue to work with them and their agents toward an agreement.”
Dubas has been talking with the agents for Matthews and Marner about an extension, but it’s not believed that negotiations are at a point where their contracts would be done soon.
Marner’s agent has said they’d prefer to get something done after the season.
Dubas doesn’t want another William Nylander situation and intends to have them both signed before July 1st. He wants to get them done as soon as possible.
Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey: Bob McKenzie was on TSN 1050 yesterday and was asked about potential offer sheets this offseason. McKenzie says he’ll “believe it when I see it,” but adds it could be the optimal time.
“But I mean honestly, I kind of gave up on offer sheets last year – this past summer – when Mark Stone didn’t get offer-sheeted. Because you could have given a one-year offer sheet on Mark Stone and the Ottawa Senators would not – if they matched it – they would not have been able to trade him this year. They would have had to let him walk to free agency. And a one-year offer sheet would have done that because you’re not allowed to trade a player within a year of matching the offer sheet.”
McKenzie adds that from his understanding there were teams that though hard about a one-year offer sheet.
My Take:
Thankfully Kyle Dubas did everyone a favor and provided some media availability yesterday to say the kind of things that need to be said by a GM in a market where speculation is so rampant that at one point the threat of a Nylander offer sheet was going to be met by a presumptive trade for Connor Brown or Kasperi Kapanen to save the Maple Leafs from cap annihilation.
CRISIS AVERTED!
Topic number one is offer sheets. All the media pundits are talking about them. They keep saying the Maple Leafs young talented players are prime examples of players that would see offer sheets. Well, they are wrong. Offer sheets are chaotic for both teams. William Nylander sat at home in Sweden from July 1 to December 1st and not a single offer sheet was handed out. No trade talks ensued. No body was moved.
I believe Dubas when he says that he wants to keep these guys together for as long as they can. I also believed Dubas when he said that they wanted to sign Nylander and did not want to trade him. So why would anyone not believe Dubas when he says that the Leafs are prepared for offer sheets?
Offer sheets are like Kale smoothies. Everyone knows they should be using them because they are good for you but no one does. EVER! lol
There are not that many teams that can afford to offer sheet Matthews $13+ million or Marner $10+ million but is it worth giving up 4 1st round draft picks?
for example, if you are the Coyotes and the option is open to offer sheet Matthews do you?
Is he good enough to make sure that you do not hand the Toronto Maple Leafs 4 lottery picks?
Can the Coyotes afford to give up 4 lottery picks? let alone 4 1st round picks period?
I don’t know. You tell me.
On Jake Gardiner:
Sorry Jake!
Your time as a Maple Leaf is totally numbered. In the salary cap world this is what happens. Good teams pay for being good and bad teams get to over pay and bid for average players.
I would love to see the Leafs keep Jake at 5-5.5 mill but they just don’t have the cap space. Plus I think Dubas on purpose mentioned Liljegren in his media availability to let us all know that he expects players like him and Sandin to push for jobs with the Leafs. I see both on an NHL roster next year. Not to mention that Calle Rosen just got signed for 2 more years at a very cheap number.
The Cap:
I don’t see the Maple Leafs having too many issues with the NHL salary cap. I have run all the numbers with all the different combinations. Matthews at $11 mill, $12 mill, $12.5 mill and Marner at anything between 8-9 million. It all works. The cap is going up to $83 million as the NHL has announced but it could be even higher.
I see the end game as the Leafs letting Jake Gardiner walk and trading Connor Brown to increase cap flexibility. Connor Brown’s cap hit is going to be replaced with Kapanen’s and I realistically don’t see the Leafs carrying Brown and his $2.1 million on the 4th line, considering how close to the cap they will be.
Summary:
Do no worry about offer sheets. Jake Gardiner is gone. Connor Brown will be traded. Leafs are good and will be for a very long time.
by Shahriar Balouchi
Cheer!