The max length will have to be 5 years or you will have to trade four 1st rounders.

Oh. Was only aware about the money not the years, I'll edit that

Marner is going to be offered a comparable 8 year deal to stay in his home town. Lets try to appear reasonable here.

You're not just ruining one relationship, though, you're ruining 30. Kind of hampers you for future dealing.

From what I've seen from Leafs fans they wouldn't be able to afford him for 8 million unless than underpay Matthews or Nylander. That is barring any trades

Holmgren tried to get Weber from Nashville. I don't remember any Nashville trades since then but it didn't stop us from trading with other teams

Holmgren lasted a year and a half after that. I count four trades in that time frame that were relevant in the scheme of things. Two he lost big time, so of course he was able to deal.

I believe that if star players are going to start leaving their current teams in UFA, with no compensation, then there will probably be more propensity to make RFA offer sheets in the future. Tavares appears to have started a trend, with Panarin to soon follow. The "unwritten rule" will be tough to maintain when there is a deterioration of loyalty and team first mentality within the top players in the league.

They can and they will, that is what Dubas has gone on record saying and if you play around with this site, its not overly hard to make it happen. It'll mean the blueline will be young and unproven next season but its not that difficult. Marner, Matthews and Nylander are almost impossible to replace so trading them hurts more than other options that can be pursued.

I don't think 8.1m isn't all that much more than what the Leaf are going to have to offer Marner.. Maybe 7.3m, so the Leafs would match. The other thing is I don't know if hometown Marner would even sign the offer sheet. Being a hometown Leaf....especially a Cup winner might be worth more than difference in pay.
But I see your point. 8.1m takes up a lot of cap, but a 1,2,3 pick isn't all that much to pay especially if the picks are in the 20s.

Whether he won the trade or not is irrelevant. First reason being he won some and he lost some, second reason (more important one) being no GM does a trade unless they think it's going to benefit their team. As unlikely as it is, let's say Hextall does offer sheet Marner, sure maybe Toronto decides not to pick up his calls, but if Hextall goes up to Chicago and they negotiate a deal which Chicago feels benefits them, they aren't gonna say no just because Hextall offer sheeted Marner. Holmgren proved that

In no way do I think this is a realistic situation, I just did this to bring up the question. If i had to bet one somebody being offer sheeted it'd actually bet on Matthews

I'm not denying that the Leafs will probably keep all 3, just wanted to post this for the question and as it stands right now, the Leafs seem like the most likely team to have a player offer sheeted despite those chances being low

I think teams on budgets who can't afford to give bigger salaries are the ones who run the risk of getting offer sheeted. TO has the money and this year for sure the cap space. But also the player has to have a desire to leave and Nylander doesn't want to leave a team that's going to give him every opportunity to succeed.

I'd be more worried about Matthews and Marner than I would be about Nylander

I'm not worried about any of them. They are too hard to replace, Matthews just can't be replaced unless a generational talent is coming back.

I meant that they are more likely to be offer sheeted and not matched than Nylander. Don't think any team can afford and would give up 4 first round picks for Nylander, max would be 8 million for him which can easily be matched by the Leafs at any point in this offseason. I'm not even sure teams would give up 4 first round picks for Marner, that really depends on which team is giving out the offer sheet. He also seems like an 8 million max type of player. Matthews is probably the one most likely to get offer sheeted (as low as those chances are). If a team that has lots of cap space and thinks they are a 1C away from being great and wants to offer an elite player 14 million I wouldn't be shocked after seeing Tavares reject 13 million from the Sharks. Would force the Leafs to make a move or let him go, the former being more likely. Would take a GM with the balls to break the unwritten rule though. Don't know if there are any

Yeah, offer sheets are desperation moves by GM's who are likely looking at losing their jobs.

It can be a useful tool. It's under-utilized. You can't use it on players like Marner or elite level players but what if you used on a young RFA who has potential but hasn't proven it yet. Pay him $4 million over 5 years and pay only a 2nd rd. pick. Or overpay for a 4th liner on a cap strapped team and give up no compensation.

The Flyers are an interesting team with cap space since they could actually spend the cash. There's too many NHL teams that are operating with the intention of only being a cap floor team so the "cap space" we see will never be spent.

That's a scenario that makes more sense. I could easily see someone offer sheeting Kapanen or Johnnson next year. They are talented and young but still unproven. If someone offered Kapanen 5 years at 4 million next summer, the Leafs would have to let him go. They'd have to move out one of the big guys to make the space needed to keep him.

Assuming he could be, Nick Ritchie in Anaheim would be an interesting offer sheet.

Those are the players that should be offer sheeted, fans love the idea of stealing a super elite player from someone else but it just doesn't happen. No GM would keep their job if they blow up the universe by offering someone like Matthews 17 million a season for 8 years (Which is likely the ballpark you'd have to operate in if you wanted to offer sheet him). That would cripple the team's cap, but it make a lot of sense to go after depth guys with bigger upsides on capped out teams. Johnsson and Kapanen in TO are good examples, even Brown as well, Ritchie is a good example as well. If you go just a little over what the opposing team has to spend they won't be able to match the deal and the compensation wouldn't be bad.

For example, TO will likely have around 2 million to resign Kapanen with next season, so if someone offers him a deal at 3 million per season, they'd likely have to let him go. That or not resign Matthews? Of course they prioritize the big guys.

I made an armchair team with Nick Ritchie being signed. It's being met with the usual grumbles of posting any armchair team.

Its a risky proposal but going after secondary guys I think holds the least risk and the most reward. Signing Dustin Penner didn't really pan out that well for Edmonton, but then Columbus paid Vegas to take Karlsson and that didn't pan out well for them. So secondary guys could blow up in the right circumstance.

It's not a safe tactic for sure. You have to really like the potential of the player. Considering the time of the Penner move that was very risky given the cap ceiling was much lower than it is now.