Zero chance Buffalo does this. Those are all lottery picks and one player, no matter how good, doesn't fix their problems.

The rumour is it is either MTL, BUF or NYI who would do this i just picked one of them

Fair enough. I'd say Buffalo is the distant third on that list but I've been wrong before.

Even the Isles have a iffy cap issue next season with their expecting RFA signings. Don't know if the Isles would have signed Lee, Nelson and Eberle if they had really wanted to have a successful offer to Marner.

Our cap is not an issue. Nick Leddy can be moved (most likely for a first + prospects) and that clears 5.5 mill. He's been on trade block all summer. Then, Hickey, 2.5 mill AAV, is also on trade block. Isles have an abundance of young defensemen, so we can trade these players. Ladd and maybe Clutterbuck go on LTIR (Ladd is often injured, even if he comes off, chances are he lands back on it).

Giving up two regular NHL regulars (which weakens the team) and hoping for LTIRs to be cap compliant just shows there is cap issues for the Isles long term. Leafs or any team could overpay the Marner by selling of pieces also.

Leddy and Hickey NEED to be traded. Aho, Wotherspoon and Noah Dobson are NHL ready, and Bode WIlde and MItch Vande Sompel will be next year. These players need to be moved to make way for better, and younger, defensive prospects.

Typical Islander fan lol

Typical Leafs fan lol

I'm actually really curious why OTT doesnt offer 1 dollar below the 4 1sts. Dubas is trying to make it to the regular season and the drop down Horton...giving him flexibility. Offer sheet him now and then Dubas is FORCED to dump $7M in cap before the season. At this stage of the off season...how many teams can take on a $5M+ cap hit? Not many at all. So Dubas has to go to a few select teams... let's pretend he works something out with NJ...now OTT does the same thing to Tampa. Its ruthless, but it would give OTT more assets.

Matt Martin too, on 2.5 million on the last year of his deal could be moved for cap room as well

Thats why i honestly think the team in question is banking on the leafs matching the offer. But Dubas is not stupid he can pick up Ferland and Dzingel for less and have one of the best teams in the NHL depth wise and flip the picks at the deadline for a top 4 RHD.

The problem is LTIR is for players injured at the time not for players overpaid. Also, teams may give you less due to that NYI or whoever does this have messed up the cap for everyother team this is why no Top RFA has signed Marner will be what everyother player will get in relation to production/position.

Aho and Marner have identical production and probably on ice value for the past two seasons. Aho got 8.45 X 5. That is true comparable but Marner just past by 2m....go figure.
You're right all the other top RFAs at least six are waiting for Marner's contract.

Exo2769, that is incorrect about Horton and his LTIR. He doesn't affect the Leafs cap at all next season....It's a known...he's on LTIR. What this fascination about Horton (or Clarkson) that makes folks think it such a deterrent to summer signings? So the Leafs have I believe 9.1m to sign Marner without making other moves. Sign Marner to 11m, then it's about trading Johnsson for futures and replace Johansson with a 1m player.

I'll have to dig into LTIR again. Below is Bowman's situation with Hossa. I know there's a huge difference between off season LTIR and in season LTIR. I didn't think there was continuation from one season to another...meaning...TOR still has to be cap compliant on day 1. If Horton is LTIR'd in the off season...which yes is technically possible...then their cap is essentially spoken for...as in...the LTIR will be in affect, but it'll eliminate any gap between where TOR is and the ceiling, thus practically zero trades can happen during the year. If Dubas can hold out until after Day 1...then Horton can be sent to LTIR and there's $5.3M more to play with. I do think that both Tampa and TOR and Vegas for that matter, are thinking about this. They each have LTIR players and each are up against it.

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/chicago-blackhawks/why-placing-marian-hossa-long-term-injured-reserve-wouldnt-help-blackhawks-cap