Former NHLer reveals which 2 teams tried to offer sheet Marner.

Two teams tried to make a move on Marner.

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HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Former NHLer reveals which 2 teams tried to offer sheet Marner.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, in the end, got their man. As everyone knows by now Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner has been signed to a brand new deal and now the remaining restricted free agent dominos are expected to begin tumbling around the National Hockey League. It took a long time for Marner and the Maple Leafs to reach a conclusion but at the end of the day the two sides came to an agreement, although they may have had some help.

Earlier this morning we reported on the fact that Darren Ferris, the agent that represents Mitch Marner and his camp, made some very interesting comments during a recent radio interview. Ferris was asked if Marner had received any offer sheets over the course of these negotiations, and was also asked if the intention from Marner had always been to remain loyal to Toronto. Not only did Ferris confirm that Marner did in fact have every intention of staying with the Leafs, but he also revealed that his camp had rejected a pair of offer sheets during the process.

"There were two presented him in the summer, two opportunities that he declined, and he told me 'Darren I do not want to sign them, I want to be a leaf," said Ferris during the interview.

Now this may have simply been an attempt by Ferris to score a public relations victory for his client, after all Marner has been the subject of more criticism in the past few weeks that he probably has during his entire life, but this is certainly intriguing if true. According to Ferris the Leafs were even made aware of one such offer sheet when the team that made the offer to Marner informed the Leafs of the move after the offer sheet had been declined.

"I know that Kyle was aware of them, the team told him that they had made the overture to Mitch. There was a very, very strong likelihood that there would have been more presented when the season had started. The cap would have be seen and it would have been harder to match."

There is now a second source however that is backing up the claims by Ferris, and not only has this source confirmed that there were indeed two offers sheets, but also the names of the teams that presented them. Former National Hockey League player turned NHL analyst Matthew Barnaby took to social media on Monday morning and dropped a big insider bombshell on everyone.

"From what I was told a while ago the 2 offer sheets to Marner were Minny and Columbus," wrote Barnaby. 

That certainly would make sense given how both teams operated over the course of the summer, but they probably were not the names you would have expected to hear. The Wild attempted to trade one of their best offensive weapons in Jason Zucker at numerous times over the course of the last season under former general manager Paul Fenton, and I highly suspect that it was Fenton who had made such an offer sheet. Meanwhile the Blue Jackets lost Artemi PanarinMatt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel in a single summer so it makes all the sense in the world that they tried to offer sheet Marner.

It will be interesting to see if the Leafs choose to retaliate in any way against either organization in the future. 

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