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Pietrangelo and what the Leafs would have to offer

September 19, 2020, 2:17 PM ET [448 Comments]
Mike Augello
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After months of speculation that the St. Louis Blues and team captain Alex Pietrangelo would reach an agreement on a new contract before the beginning of free agency, reports over the last 48 hours have indicated that the 30-year-old Cup-winning blueliner will hit the market on October 9 and field offers from other NHL clubs.

TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on Friday that contract talks between the two sides broke off late last week and that the Blues advised Pietrangelo to pursue unrestricted free agency after there remained a wide gap between on a new contract.

The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford reports that St. Louis’ offer was in the neighborhood of $7.7 to $8 million per season, and that Pietrangelo was willing to accept under market value to get a deal done, but that GM Doug Armstrong would not agree to the structure (term, no-move clauses, signing bonuses) of the deal.

“We’re a little disappointed that we’re in this situation. We weren’t able to hammer out the details what we wanted in a deal. There was some work that we tried to get done that we couldn’t get done, so both sides agreed that maybe it’s in the best interest.” Pietrangelo said. “We’re two weeks away. Not saying anything can’t change, but as of right now, that’s kind of our plan, and we’ll see where things go.”

Recent speculation has tied interest in the 30-year-old GTA native to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vegas Golden Knights, and Boston Bruins and possibly other clubs, but getting a deal done might only be possible if they are willing to go in negotiations with Newport Sports where St. Louis was unwilling to.

The Blues have an advantage of being able to offer a deal of eight years, but only until 12 noon on October 9, after which the max term for all clubs is seven years. All three clubs have not had an issue giving out no movement clauses in recent years, as John Tavares, Jake Muzzin, Mark Stone, and Brad Marchand have NMC’s on their recent deals.

The Leafs have used going heavy on signing bonuses in contract negotiations under GM Kyle Dubas, as the deals for Tavares, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner are mostly bonus and have base salaries under $1 million for the length of the contract, while the money paid to William Nylander and Muzzin is over 50% signing bonus the next four years.

The new collective bargaining agreement put a limitation of 25% above the amount of the contract AAV as a cap on front-loading contracts, which would mean that Pietrangelo could get a $12 million bonus in year one of a deal averaging $9 million per season. Toronto might have an advantage because they have the financial might to make such an offer while other clubs will be feeling the fiscal crunch due to COVID-19.

Toronto’s only complication is having $6.1 Million in available cap space. Dubas would have to clear a lot more to re-sign RFA’s Ilya Mikheyev and Travis Dermott and have enough room to offer a competitive deal to Pietrangelo. That likely would entail repeating the maneuver that Toronto did last season in acquiring an injured player in David Clarkson that could be placed on LTIR to open up room or by moving out another salary in Andreas Johnsson or William Nylander.

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