Pretend MatthewsMarner is your wife

Équipe: 2019-20 Maple Leafs de Toronto

Date de création initiale: 5 févr. 2019

Publié: 5 févr. 2019

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

I'm exhausted reading all this BS about what these guys are 'WORTH'.

Here's the long and short of it. If the Leafs are legitimately contending for Stanley Cups (conf. finals and cup finals) over the next 5-8yrs then who cares what they are being paid. If they are routinely getting bounced in the 1st or 2nd round over the same time period...then we'll all be on here saying they ate up too much of the cap to be able to keep the rest of the team competitive. Deal?

For now....you have to view Matthews and Marner the way you would your girlfriend or wife. It's anniversary time and you need to get her a gift. You know she loves going to the ballet so you fork over $1,000 between a pair of tickets, dinner, wine, hotel room and a baby sitter.

Practically, you think spending a grand on one night for a gift isn't worth it...especially because you hate the ballet and you'd rather hit a pub for wings and beer than pay a stupid amount for a tiny food portion at a nice restaurant and sit thru 3 uncomfortable hours with your knees pressed together watching people prance around. But you do it anyway. Why? Is your wife worth it? Maybe that's debatable. Maybe you look at your buddy's wife who you think is better looking and he got away with taking her to East Side Marios for dinner and used a 'save the tax' coupon.

But you don't have his wife...you have yours...and you're hoping that by spending more that what you feel the night is even worth to you...that your wife feels appreciated and helps you achieve your own personal goals (either later that night or generally throughout life).


The leafs don't have McDavid, or Kucherov, Stamkos or Eichel and they definitely don't have a 'save the tax' coupon. They have Matthews and Marner. Dubas' ultimate goal is to win a cup and appease a fan base that has been without one since 1967. These are his prized ponies and he's in a position where he probably needs to spend more than he'd like to keep them in the fold because the chances of him winning a cup without them are much slimmer than with them. He flat out said today that his success as a GM will largely be weighed on his ability to build a team around these core players.

He's likely already paid Nylander and Matthews more than he felt they were 'worth' because that was the deal available to be made. He's likely going to pay Marner way more than most people on here think he's 'worth' too.

By my estimation...he probably needs to move about $3.5m in current AAV contracts to get everyone else locked up...but the leafs are littered with valuable players so, while it won't be hard to find takers for some of the complimentary pieces...it'll be hard to decide which guys are the best to move on from. Chicago stayed competitive for a long time making the right calls on Bolland, Versteeg, Niemi, etc. but you let a guy like Panarin go at the wrong time and it can steer you sideways in a hurry.

Either way...it's not possible to say whether these guys are worth these contracts until we see how well they actually earn them. Trust the process now and judge in hindsight.