The Toronto Maple Leafs have taken care of the majority of their offseason business in the opening week, completing a pair of trades that added two right-handed blueliners to their defensive corps, a center to replace Nazem Kadri and four restricted free agents in Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson, Alex Kerfoot and Cody Ceci signed to contract extensions.
For GM Kyle Dubas, the last item on his checklist is winger Mitch Marner, but getting last season’s leading scorer locked up on a new deal is proving to be difficult. In spite of the two sides continuing to negotiate, rumors persist that other NHL clubs are willing to extend an offer sheet to the 21-year-old GTA native.
On Thursday, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported that chatter at least one team is seriously considering presenting Marner with an offer sheet. Pagnotta furthered
the rumor on Friday indicating that multiple clubs have considered pursuing Marner, including the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens..
“We went into the offseason always prepared that (an offer sheet) was a possibility.”Dubas said on Sportsnet’s Tim and Sid show on Thursday. "We're aware of the threat. We are aware of the different things that are happening with different teams. You kind of try to track where other teams are at to try to make sure that you're in a good spot in case one comes, then you have to make your decision based on whatever that may be if the offer sheet is in fact signed."
The biggest threat in an offer sheet might not be the salary, since Toronto has the flexibility of placing Nathan Horton on LTIR and going 10% over the salary cap ($8.15 Million) during the summer, but may be having to match a deal for four or five years, which would walk Marner right to the doorstep of unrestricted free agency.
"If (an offer sheet) happens, it happens and I think we're in a spot where we protected ourselves to make a very sound decision and not a defensive one. We're totally focused on certainly continuing to work with Darren (Ferris) and with their camp to try to get this done."
According to Cap Friendly, both the Isles and Habs have in the neighborhood of $8.5 Million in available cap space, which could be maneuvered around to create more room for a potential offer sheet, but there is reason for skepticism that veteran GM Lou Lamoriello would be willing to go down this road.
New York has RFA forward Anthony Beauvillier unsigned and an ownership group that currently is not willing to spend to the cap until they have the guaranteed revenue stream of a new building in place. Lamoriello’s lengthy track record has shown that he is willing to push the edge of the envelope, but an offer sheet would be daring even for the veteran GM.
Montreal struck out on the offer sheet route earlier this week with Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, and if they went down that road again, they would have to structure a deal in a different way than they did with Aho, since MLSE has deep pockets and would be willing to match any deal relying on heavy signing bonuses.
Although the rumors reported by Pagnotta and TSN's Darren Dreger may be valid, it is very possible that they are being floated to attract more attention to the situation, as many NHL observers have mentioned that the likelihood of an offer sheet would decrease as teams used up their cap space signing other free agents.
There are not too many teams in the league who will extend an offer sheet with the potential of surrendering four first round picks.
We will see at some point this summer whether the recent chatter is the precursor of an actual offer sheet or just an attention-getting mechanism.
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