The Toronto Maple Leafs emerged from July 1 with an upgraded defense corps, a young center to take the place of the departed Nazem Kadri and a much healthier salary cap situation, but the best news for GM Kyle Dubas received on Monday may have been the first two signings of the talent-laden 2019 RFA class.
While negotiations continue with agent Darren Ferris regarding a new contract for winger Mitch Marner, the trades with the Ottawa Senators and Colorado Avalanche not only added right-handed defensemen in Cody Ceci and Tyson Barrie, it alleviated the Leafs cap crunch with over $11 Million in salary cap space (and more than $16 Million if the club places injured forward Nathan Horton on LTIR).
The signings of San Jose winger Timo Meier and Montreal’s offer sheet to Carolina’s Sebastian Aho may provide a shift in the negotiations in favor of the Leafs. Meier signed a four-year, $24 Million contract with the Sharks after scoring a career-high 66 points (30 goals, 36 assists) last season.
The 21-year-old Aho has seasons of 24, 29 and 30 goals and last season posted 83 points for the Hurricanes, but agreed to an offer sheet for a quite reasonable $8.45 Million AAV for five seasons.
“Everyone looks around at the comparable list of people that are signing. The players or their agents or even internally here, we look at the points and all the different things used to compare the players.” Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said on TSN 1050’s Overdrive on Tuesday. “It certainly helps, I know that before Meier and Aho, it didn’t know if anything was really going to start to get done, but we’re hopeful it can start to shake some things loose and help us on our end as well.”
In spite of the assertions of the Marner camp through the media that the comparable is Auston Matthews $11.634 Million contract, the market early on has provided them little help towards being able to sway the Leafs into a deal with that high of a cap hit, unless it is deal of seven or eight years.
Toronto is now well positioned after their two trades to dissuade any team contemplating an offer sheet because there is little hope of getting Marner in the end result. Unfortunately what this may result in is a summer-long negotiation and impasse.
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