Marner.
But yep, that's it.
I know this doesn't need to be addressed again, but the degree in which Dubas royally screwed up the Matthews and Nylander deals paved a clear path for Marner to get what he got. Matthews was handed the best deal in NHL history on a silver platter. I hope the moment that Matthews signed his deal, McDavid fired his agent. How do you not use the McDavid contract as a ceiling when negotiating. If y0u're going to give him that contract you have to lock him up for 8 years, simple as that.
Dubas then follows that up with the Nylander deal. William Nylander is a fine player who is being overpaid by about 2 million dollars a year, thats all. Whom would you rather have, TK at 5.5 or Nylander at 7.5, it's a no brainer for me. How about comparing him to someone in his same draft class like Ehlers. Very comparable players and production yet Ehlers gets paid 1.5 millon dollars a year less and giving up an extra ufa year.
Then we come to Marner. Well after you paved the way with the Matthews contract how could Marner ask for anything less since he outproduced him last year, and is arguably their best player. So while Marner not have as great of a deal as Matthews, his deal is still 2nd best in the league. Dubas has used the same structure for the Tavares, Marner, and Matthews contract.
Everyone thought that with all these RFA deals of late that it was going to become this RFA revolution, but the reality is that Dubas is the only GM that gave into this belief that RFA's had to have their ego's stroked and by the looks of it no other GM has followed suit. These deals are going to cost TML a cup, no amount of slick drafting and managing is ever going to make up for the cap hit these contracts make up. Not saying they aren't great players, but their talent to cap hit are so incongruent from the rest of the contracts in their class.