The Leafs need to shake things up in some way. By no means is it likely that Marner will be moved but I did read a blog suggesting a big return. I know he is a great player but his contract will be very difficult to ever live up to.
With the cap not likely to go up for 3 seasons what do we think the return for Marner (5yrs left at 10.89mil) could be?
Based on previous threads this is not a great place to discuss a Marner trade.
Yes, Marner has a 10.9M cap hit. Yes, the cap is flat and I doubt he will out-perform his contract.
However, compare trade threads about Marner (cap dump, will need to retain massive amounts) with trade threads about Eichel (worth huge amounts). Now Eichel is a better player, no doubt about that, and Eichel is a center, but the difference between them is not close to the level of what is currently perceived on here - and how Marner is perceived on here in terms of trade talks (cap dump, no value) also has no connection to how Marner was perceived on here before he signed his contract (when he was better than Matthews according to an absolutely massive number of non-Leafs fans).
Eichel - cap hit 10 AAV for the next 6 years. Owed 52.5M for an average of 8.75M (2.5M remaining for next year, and 10 for each year after).
Marner - cap hit 10.9 AAV for the next 5 years. Owed 35M for an average of 7M (0.7M remaining for next year, 10.4 the next year and 8 for each of the final 3 years).
Marner being owed almost 4M less per year than his cap hit would be a major selling point for financially troubled teams who have no intention of spending to cap, and in which case his cap hit won't matter.
Regardless, there is almost no chance Dubas will trade Marner, although he should.
