{"id":457296,"date":"2024-11-29T08:52:16","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=457296"},"modified":"2024-11-28T23:17:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T04:17:50","slug":"nhl-rumours-contract-negotiations-for-toronto-maple-leafs-star-players-are-not-straight-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/11\/29\/nhl-rumours-contract-negotiations-for-toronto-maple-leafs-star-players-are-not-straight-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Contract Negotiations For Toronto Maple Leafs Star Players Are Not Straight Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours<\/a>. The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have six forwards on the NHL roster who are pending UFAs<\/a>. That includes stars, John Tavares<\/a> and Mitch Marner<\/a>. Both these players have been stepping up for the Maple Leafs during a time when the team is extremely short-handed<\/a>. Over the last two weeks, Toronto has been missing plenty of forwards. After Wednesday’s loss to the Florida Panthers<\/a>, the number of unavailable forwards grew to eight because Bobby McMann<\/a> left the game with a lower-body injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lately, Marner and Tavares are playing like they want to get paid next year. However, negotiations for the two stars may come with some complexity.<\/p>\n

Marner and Tavares Negotiations<\/h2>\n

According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston on Insider Trading<\/a>, it\u2019s likely that Marner and Tavares will re-sign with Toronto. Although it\u2019s likely for the two stars to be back next season, the conversations for new deals have not been linear. Furthermore, the negotiations for each of these players have been more than about money and contract terms. With that, Tavares and Marner\u2019s contract negotiations are completely different situations.<\/p>\n

Marner\u2019s Situation<\/h3>\n

Marner is the holy grail of pending free agents on the Maple Leafs. Even on a broader range, he\u2019s one of the biggest UFAs in the NHL. Other players who can compete in that classification are forward Mikko Rantanen<\/a> of the Colorado Avalanche and goaltender Igor Shesterkin<\/a> of the New York Rangers<\/a>. Those players will also be seeking large contracts with their respective teams, especially with the salary cap projected to increase.<\/p>\n

Rantanen is a contract comparable with Marner, as their contract negotiations are similar, according to LeBrun. Right now, Auston Matthews<\/a> and Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> lead their teams in terms of their average annual value. Matthews earns $13.25M<\/a> per year, and MacKinnon earns $12.6M<\/a> per year. It\u2019s been reported that Leafs general manager Brad Treliving wants to keep Marner\u2019s contract below Matthews\u2019. Colorado\u2019s general manager, Chris MacFarland, is also preaching that to his players.<\/p>\n

However, both Marner\u2019s and Rantanen\u2019s agents believe their clients can be offered a bigger deal if they hit free agency. In addition to that, their agents are not looking for a specific number of dollars. They are more interested in the percentage of the salary cap as a reference point. Therefore, that\u2019s why Marner\u2019s agent, Darren Ferris believes he should earn more than the Leafs captain. \u00a0That\u2019s where negotiations are with those players, Marner specifically.<\/p>\n

Tavares\u2019 Situation<\/h3>\n

There is a little less friction in negotiations for Tavares, according to Johnston. Both sides want to make a deal happen. However, given the fact the former captain is 34 years old, Treliving wants to make sure that it\u2019s a deal and number that makes sense for the team. Therefore, there is a creative solution that the Leafs general manager is leaning towards.<\/p>\n

Toronto has proposed giving deferred money to Tavares. This means that on top of whatever salary they give to the six-time all-star, he will be paid when his contract ends. This is an uncommon practice in the NHL because most players like the idea of earning immediately. However, it\u2019s not unheard of, as Seth Jarvis<\/a> of the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> agreed to a deferred money deal in his last contract. For Tavares, it makes a little more sense. This is because his next contract is likely the last one of his career. Therefore, agreeing to earn deferred money would set him up for retirement in a way. More importantly for the Leafs, this would bring down his cap hit.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours. The Toronto Maple Leafs have six forwards on the NHL roster who are pending UFAs. That includes stars, John Tavares and Mitch Marner. Both these players have been stepping up for the Maple Leafs during a time when the team is extremely short-handed. Over the last two weeks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5141,"featured_media":457342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4547,4548,4321],"tags":[228,1594,499,301,229,77,5868,6127],"class_list":["post-457296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-auston-matthews","tag-brad-treliving","tag-john-tavares","tag-mikko-rantanen","tag-mitch-marner","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-analysis","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-rumours"],"modified_by":"Andre Leal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}