So hard to say for guys who are still so young but I think Marner has a good chance with the Leafs and so does Matthews simply because they will pay whatever it takes to keep him and hopefully they will be competitive his whole career.
Crosby, McDavid, Ovechkin, Toews, Rinne, etc.
Plus scrubs that only play a few career games (Kosmachuk, Melchiori, etc. for the Jets)
McDavid? Ehhh... Not if the Oilers keep going the way they are going. He already will have over 100M in career earnings when he is next a UFA and any team would offer 7 years at near the cap dollars.
I suspect if he has played by himself with no real help on a team that misses the playoffs more than it makes it he would be willing to earn 10M less in his career via taking a shorter contract to go to a competitive team.
It's early but I'd be willing to bet MacKinnon and Rantanen play for the Avs for their careers
People said the same about Duchene because he grew up as an Avs fan and was elite as a youngster. Very hard to say how this all works out.
I'm thinking Kadri would like to be, if that happens, doubtful.
I agree he loves the team and the Organization loves him and he is a fan favorite. It will of course depend on cap but he has already taken a cheap contract to help us win I am sure he would take another to make it work especially if he thinks they will either win or is on a winning roster at some point.
What? I could see all of these guys leaving at some point, Gardiner could be gone next year.
Really? Their entire core is going to leave? More of this whole "Everyone hates being a Leaf and are just saying the right things until they can leave" stuff that people on here keep pushing? I can promise unless this team implodes every year for 5 years at least one of them will be a career Leaf (Likely not Gards but Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Kadri, Rielly).
Ehhh.. Eichel strikes me as a Diva. In his young career he has already gotten a coach fired by refusing to sign a new deal until it happened. He was mentored by ROR the king of hold outs, and has already handicapped the team into paying a deal he isn't worth thus far.
If Buffalo never turns it around, wouldn't be surprised to see him go to a better team, if no other reason than he is tired of being over shadowed by other stars in his age group and wanting to prove on a better team he is just as good.
Also impossible to say for Dahlin he is 18.