Why Marner’s contract negotiations are taking so long
Leafs forward among many NHL restricted free agents who are in holding pattern
TORONTO — The waiting game in Mitch Marner’s contract talks with the Toronto Maple Leafs is being fuelled in part by the fact there are simply no comparables to provide parameters for getting the deal done.
And so, a suggestion has been floated: Why not make restricted free agents such as Marner and a host of other young National Hockey League stars eligible for salary arbitration when their three-year entry-level contracts run out?
Marner, whose deal expired July 1, has set a soft deadline for finalizing a contract: the start of training camp in early September. While a deal can be struck at any time, the hockey world is also trying to wrap up arbitration agreements with dozens of other players before what is usually a midsummer breather.
Meanwhile, Marner, Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine, Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point, Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen and Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk are all in a holding pattern. The consensus is that they will all re-sign, but in hockey’s complicated world of salary-cap restrictions along with other summertime business, there doesn’t seem to be any rush.
Arbitration would speed up that process, but there have been no discussions at the league level to change the current eligibility — after five years of NHL service — despite support from some agents and other hockey observers.
“It’s not a bad idea at all,” said one agent familiar with the Marner talks who requested anonymity. “The problem there is: How much would that disrupt the current system that exists?
“We’ve been through (unrestricted free agency) and RFA, where UFA eligibility went from age 32 to 31, and all the way down to 27, and each time it disrupted the current system. The question anyone would ask is: What disruptions are appropriate, what are the positive and negative effects?”
For Leafs Nation, and anyone feverish over sewing Marner up on a new deal, there was the belief that Leafs GM Kyle Dubas would not allow this negotiation to mirror the standoff with William Nylander last summer.
Nylander, it’s been argued, lost an entire season in his development — he never quite got up to speed after his contract talks ran all the way to the absolute 11th hour on Dec. 1.
Marner has indicated he won’t go into Leafs camp without a new deal, and it’s doubtful the cash-strapped Leafs would want him in camp without a deal.
There has been plenty of other speculation — that the Marner camp doesn’t want anything longer than a five-year term, with talk of a three-year, $30-million to $33-million deal surfacing as a potential settling point for the two sides.
The Leafs remain in a cash crunch at the moment, with little to no cap space available, but with space opening options including long-term injury reserve (they potentially have up to $13.6 million in LTIR space through Nathan Horton, David Clarkson, and then Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott, who are expected to start the season on the injury list). NHL teams are also eligible to exceed the cap limit by 10 per cent. The problem with the LTIR option, though, is that teams can’t claim that space until they submit their opening game roster just prior to the start of the season.