Agent says Marner getting lowballed
Attention salespeople of the GTA: If Kyle Dubas walks into your car dealership or purveyor of luxury goods in the days to come, consider it your lucky day. The general manager of the Maple Leafs is quickly gaining a reputation as a walking payday for commissionbased sales agents.
Not that he isn’t doing a competent job running the world’s richest hockey club. He is, and the Jake Muzzin acquisition is Exhibit A. Not that his team isn’t a Stanley Cup contender. It’s just that when it comes to negotiating terms on certain key purchases, the rookie executive has not proven himself particularly deft at procuring discounts. Call him No Dicker Dubas. Hockey demands its denizens “pay the price.” The Leafs GM seems to shrug and fork over full-market retail.
That, at least, was the gist of the reaction of one notable NHL agent Tuesday, after Dubas signed Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews to a five-year contract extension worth about $58 million U.S.
“That’s probably the best contract in the National Hockey League,” said Darren Ferris, the agent whose client list includes Maple Leafs’ star Mitch Marner. “There’s no team-friendly discount there.”
Ferris, of course, is keeping close track of such things. Now that Matthews is a rich man, it’s Marner’s contract situation that’s the focus of Leafland’s financial angst. Ferris reiterated his intent to put off negotiations on Marner’s contract extension until after the play- offs, but he also took time to sketch out the scenario that brought the Leafs and their leading point-getter to their current state of in-season silence.
“So far they’ve been trying to lowball (Marner),” Ferris said. “That’s the reason we’ve come to this point.”
If you’re detecting a level of frustration coming from the Marner camp, you’re not off base. The way Ferris appears to see it, Matthews didn’t take a team-friendly discount on the contract he signed Tuesday, just as William Nylander didn’t take a team-friendly discount on the $42-million deal he inked in December. And yet, in Ferris’s view, Marner has repeatedly been asked to accept team-friendly terms in previous sessions of now-stalled negotiations. Which is why a deal is not yet done.
“Nobody else is taking a discount. And now you’re asking (Marner) to take one again? It’s nonsense,” Ferris said. “Mitch already did them a favour on the entry-level deal.”
Ferris said Marner’s entrylevel contract, signed under the purview of former general manager Lou Lamoriello, remains a point of contention. While Ferris negotiated socalled Schedule A bonuses for Marner worth a potential $850,000 annually, the agent said he was told it was blanket club policy not to hand out lucrative Schedule B bonuses, which came with the potential of an additional $2 million in annual earnings. It didn’t sit well when it was learned that Matthews signed a deal not long after that included both Schedule A and Schedule B bonuses.
You don’t have to be Marner’s agent to make the case No. 16 has provided the franchise nothing but impeccable, fanfriendly service. Marner has been leading the team in scoring two years running. He led the team in scoring in the playoffs last spring. He’s leading all Toronto forwards in ice time this season. And in a related development, along with providing the primary assist on 15 of linemate John Tavares’s 31 goals this year, Marner has also become a 200-foot linchpin of Toronto’s top matchup unit. A few weeks back, when head coach Mike Babcock briefly put Marner and Matthews together on a line, Babcock tossed in a public disclaimer about Matthews needing to be prepared to play such a demanding role.
“When you play with Mitchy … you’ve got to play against the best players,” Babcock said. “That means you’ve really got to commit without the puck.”
For all that, Ferris would make the case the team’s offers to Marner haven’t reflected his value. When it comes to Marner, No Dicker Dubas has become a bargain-hunting haggler, at least in Ferris’s telling. If you’re a fan, maybe you see that as astute negotiating by the team. Then again, once a GM has caved to Nylander, what’s the sense in making Marner a line-in-the-sand testament to fiscal restraint?
While Ferris declined to publicly discuss his demands, multiple NHL sources posited the agent will surely be seeking a deal comparable to what Matthews got. Don’t get it wrong, though. There’s zero Matthews-directed resentment coming from Marner’s corner.
“This is great for all players. I think it’s a great contract for the player,” Ferris said. “As long as they treat Mitch with the same respect, there shouldn’t be an issue.”
TSN hockey insider Bob McKenzie has speculated that Marner’s contract would come with a term of either three years or somewhere between six and eight years. A four-year deal, after all, would walk Marner directly to unrestricted free agency while a five-year deal would expire at the same time as Matthews’ pact. Neither is favourable for the Leafs. But on Tuesday an NHL source said Marner’s camp prefers a four- or a five-year deal. So, this could get interesting. Or maybe Dubas, who spoke glowingly of Marner’s contribution to the team, will keep his streak alive and ultimately pay full freight, whatever that is.
“Mitch is a wonderful young player, we love having him. He’s someone who loves hockey every day. He comes in and he has the same great energy, great enthusiasm,” Dubas said Tuesday. “(Declining to negotiate during the season is) his personal preference, there’s going to be no pressure from us on that. For us, if they want to talk, we’re here.”
And if talks don’t progress, there’ve been rumblings that various NHL teams are prepared to present Marner with an offer sheet should he become a restricted free agent July 1. Now, a grain of salt is required on that front. An offer sheet hasn’t been put in front of an NHL player since 2013. It’s hard to imagine the Leafs allow one to pass before Marner’s eyes.
“He’s going to be a Toronto Maple Leaf for a long time, regardless how we have to come to that,” Dubas said Tuesday. If and when Dubas gets around to paying Marner, he’d probably be advised to patch up relations, too. If Marner plays like he loves hockey every day, you can get the idea he’s also of the mind his hockey team hasn’t yet loved him back.
“Mitch will get what Mitch is due. But as far as the Maple Leafs, it’s up to them how they value him. If it works out with them, it works out,” Ferris said. “We’ll see at the end of the year what their position is and whether they’re motivated to sign Mitch or not. “It’s totally up to them.”