I think they are trying to avoid a 3 year contract because they already have to deal with Kapanen and Rielly in 3 years.

But as far as term and Aav, it seems legit. At the end of Staals ELC year he put better numbers than Marner and he got a 3 year bridge for 10.23% of the cap, which would be 8.3ish for this year’s cap. Staal also never replicated those numbers again, so I think in that circumstance the bridge worked for the Canes.

Crap, thought I was editing but that works too.

Staal was also a centre, who had 45 goals and 100 points that year, if I'm not mistaken. Not to mention the fact that Staal didn't have anyone like Tavares playing with him, meaning he actually drove most of his own offense. Marner is a winger, who didn't crack 30 goals, and whose assist numbers were greatly inflated by Tavares and a lucky 20-goal season for Hyman. Staal isn't a comparable.

Goals are worth more than assists, and centres are worth more than wingers.

While I do agree that Marner’s numbers were inflated by Tavares, the same can be said about Marner inflating Tavares’s goals. The primary assists by Marner on Tavares’s goals dont paint the whole picture, but it’s plain when watching that at least 8-10 of those goals were gifts by Marner. By gifts I’m referring to “tap in” goals by Tavares and not the ones on the PP. Yes, it’s a hard job being in front of the net that Tavares is one of the best at, but finding him through a seam or even creating a seam to get him the puck is no easy job either. Their games complement each other.

I just used Staal as a comparable because his was the most recent I can think of where he had an insane season(more than 1 PPG average) during the last year of his ELC. By comparable I mean it’s a good situation to compare a bridge contract, not that they’re carbon copies of each other and deserve the same amount.

It's a decent comparable in terms of numbers, but I still believe that Staal was better than Marner was at that stage of their careers. If Marner signs for 3 years, the AAV should start with a 7.