Leafs have new plan to get Marner signed!

Let’s hope this one works out…

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HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Leafs have new plan to get Marner signed!
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As the Toronto Maple Leafs keep trying to reach an agreement in their contract discussions with restricted free agent forward Mitch Marner, it has been reported by The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta that at least one team is “very seriously considering presenting Marner with an offer sheet.”

GM Kyle Dubas knows he needs to get him inked and Sportsnet revealed that he might take on a new strategy to get a deal done. 

Dubas admitted that he needs to “get creative” and he will have to with all the recent signings he completed this week… 

“We continue to have good dialogue daily with Mitch’s representative, Darren Ferris, and we continue to try to work hard towards it,” Dubas said. “I’ll try to get as creative as we possibly can to try to get it across the finish line.”

Newcomers Cody Ceci and Alex Kerfoot are under contract for the Maple Leafs, but money is running out fast. According to Cap Friendly, the one-year deal for Ceci at $4.5 million and the AAV of $3.5 million for each of Kerfoot’s four years gives the Leafs just $3.765 million in room for Marner. However, injured Nathan Horton’s money still needs to be taken off the books, which gets the Leafs north of $9 million to put towards Marner’s wish to receive Auston Matthews’ money in the $11.634 million range.

Creativity might be the only strategy left to get Marner under contract in Toronto. And for now, while fans are going nuts with the Marner watch, Dubas remains cool as a cucumber. 

“I think I’d be a little bit more anxious if more of the other RFAs were starting to come off the board and we were still left without a solution,” Dubas said. “It seems to be a situation throughout the league where there’s a little bit of a standstill. But we’ll keep working away, and they’ve been very good at communicating with us daily and we’ll just continue to try to push it along.”

Let’s hope that while he can get as creative as he wants, Dubas will also feel the pressure and get this done FAST! 

Source: Sportsnet