The Aho is contract is obviously a good place to start, but I think Marner deserves a little more, and I think his people, agent, father, etc. think he deserves a lot more. On a 5 year deal, the number should be $9.5 million AAV.

I'll pretense this by saying that players are getting greedy and over-payed. That being said, He has been the leafs best player and I would compare his salary to Tavares and Matthews. He doesn't deserve less than them. They all should have been paid $10.5 and call it a day.

If Dubas doesn't move quickly, an offer sheet is going to screw you guys.

He doesn't deserve as much as Tavares as he was a UFA. UFAs get more than RFAs. Would the Leafs have been willing to pay Tavares 11 million AND give up 4 firsts?

In regards to Matthews vs Marner, Matthews is likely a tad overpaid. But he is both a goal scorer and a centre. Both of those are worth a lot more.
In their first two years of their contract Matthews was in another tier to Marner. In their third year (contract year), Marner gets to play with one of the best centres in the league and all of a sudden is in the same tier.

Regardless the most an RFA winger off ELC has gotten in the CBA is Tarasenko at 7.5 million.

The most an RFA winger has ever gotten was Kucherov (but remember Kucherov was a year from UFA so could always have gone to arbitration, gotten 1 year and forced UFA as Stone did).

Everyone can talk about him deserving 10 or 11 million or whatever but it's literally never been done. 9 million is literally unprecedented.

If you are budgeting, i.e., setting upper limits, I think you have to substitute one of Liljegren/Sandin for Holl and Bracco for one of the $700's, so there's only just over $9M in "pure money" left. On the other hand, you can temporarily assume there is additional room due to Hyman's injury and placement on the LTIR list.

I love the auto-"correct" of "pretense" for "preface."

I agree with what you are saying that they are arguing, but it's b..ls..t. Aho spends a lot of his time playing center, and Marner virtually none.

Sorry, who is arguing? Leafs and Marner's people you mean? So, Aho can play some centre but Marner can penalty kill quite well. Plus Marner did get more points than Aho, so like I said. I think the Aho contract is a good place to start, and I also think, as a result, any 5-year deal the Leafs offer Marner should NOT surpass $10 million.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying. I hear you telling us that Marner is justified in asking for more than Aho, but shouldn't get more than $10 million. While I agree with the latter, I don't agree with the former. The difference between them is so small, I don't think Marner should get more than $9.25M (i.e., a little under 10%), if anything. I'd love to hear that the final number is $9 or maybe even $8.75.

Wasn't an auto-correct, just stupid mistake by me lol but I appreciate the benefit of the doubt

We're essentially agreeing that pretty much everyone is overpaid. And although you are right in that a C has a slight edge in value, I don't think it adds $3M over someone of better point production.

Kucherov clearly took a price cut and Aho got a little burned on his offer sheet contract. I think $10-$10.5 for Marner is fair value for both camps. I hope Toronto is able to resign them cause I want Canadian hockey teams to succeed. Dubas just needs to find a way to make it fit

Kucherov isn't a comparable. He was one year off from UFA with the ability to force UFA with a one year arbitration ala Stone.

The largest RFA winger off ELC in this CBS is Tarasenko at 7.5 million. It's pure speculation these 9, 10, 11 million dollar expectations.

When Rantanen or Tkachuk, or Laine sign maybe the story changes. But for now Tarasenko is the high water mark.