[Signing] Leafs sign Marner to 6 year deal ($10.893mil AAV)

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Lol, give your head a shake man, Tkachuk is a bigger and a very likely better version of Marchand, Marchand was 27 before he reached 30 goals and 60 points, Tkachuk did it in spades at 21.

They are similar from an agitator perspective but Marchand is a much better skater and more skilled player in my opinion. Not sure I see Tkachuk being a 100 point player. I will admit Tkachuk has exceeded expectations so I shouldn't doubt him but his skillset is a bit worrisome. At the end of the day if you're effective I guess it doesn't matter how but I still see him as a strong depth guy and not the go to guy from an offensive perspective.

[Stay Golden]

Ridiculous amount of money that without playing alongside Tavares would probably have 20 pts less. But when Marner hit 90 plus pts he put himself in this wacky amount of $$$.

Marner camp won this negotiation hands done no contest. Should have been in the 8.5m range if it was a fair for both sides deal.

It's probably just me and jmo of the stupid amount of money he signed for but in the press conference he came across as smug.

[JackIsBack]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Is it really weird when you have to disingenuously pretend two thirds of of the roster of each team doesn't exist to try and make this argument?

Well... Yes.... but they also have less cap space going into the "trash" (aka"buyout") then we do... they also have a huge LTIR credit (which they acquired largely though trades to get assets - most of these players will never play a game for Toronto in the future)... but YES... I did cherry pick to get to my point that they have some HUGE contracts on that team... I think we are more balanced... but I also think that taking on LTIR players is a bit disingenuous (read as: for the NHL to allow) considering that the cap was designed to get the teams on even terms with regards to revenue and market size.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Tkachuk did just hit 77 points playing on the 2nd line...took Marchand 8 seasons to get to that point total

I can give you a list of guys Tkachuk outscored last season that are certainly offensively gifted at the high end...(Malkin, Landeskog, Backstrom, Stone, Teresenko, ect.)

Don't want to pay him 10M either but hard to question his offence with the numbers he put up in his 3rd season.

Tkachuk was given top 6 minutes and very, very good linemates as a rookie
He last year was part of a 5 man PP unit which has all 5 guys getting over 20 PP points.

Marchand had a different career arc. He was in a depth role for a while but a few years ago he got more time , started shooting a lot more, and Julien used him on the PP a lot and he rounded out a complete offensive game

He has most recently scored 100 points, and the step from Tkachuk’s 77 points to Marchand’s 100 is not trivial. Also, his 100 points included 7 shorthanded.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Hackey

They are similar from an agitator perspective but Marchand is a much better skater and more skilled player in my opinion. Not sure I see Tkachuk being a 100 point player.

But let’s be honest here: who actually saw 21–year-old Brad Marchand hitting the 100 pts mark at any point in his NHL career? Hell, coming off his 32-pts in 33-GP season in Providence, did anyone realistically see Marchand ever scoring +70 NHL points? Tkachuk has already done that.

I will admit Tkachuk has exceeded expectations so I shouldn't doubt him but his skillset is a bit worrisome. At the end of the day if you're effective I guess it doesn't matter how but I still see him as a strong depth guy and not the go to guy from an offensive perspective.

People talk about Tkachuk like he is the slowest, most incompetent skater to ever see ice time in the NHL. It’s nonsense, and given his exceptional vision, his elite-level passing and puck-handling skill, I cannot see how his foot speed can be much of any concern. It sure hasn’t held Tkachuk back from being a game-breaking player so far, in an era when the game has never been faster.


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[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

But let’s be honest here: who actually saw 21–year-old Brad Marchand hitting the 100 pts mark at any point in his NHL career? Hell, coming off his 32-pts in 33-GP season in Providence, did anyone realistically see Marchand ever scoring +70 NHL points? Tkachuk has already done that.



People talk about Tkachuk like he is the slowest, most incompetent skater to ever see ice time in the NHL. It’s nonsense, and given his exceptional vision, his elite-level passing and puck-handling skill, I cannot see how his foot speed can be much of any concern. It sure hasn’t held Tkachuk back from being a game-breaking player so far, in an era when the game has never been faster.


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Honest question

How many 100 point players have questions about their skating?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I thought Dubas was a genius GM, that's why he was brought in so young. What happened? This seems like Toronto is going to be handcuffed.

Smarts are great. Experience is great. Inexperienced smart GMs will make mistakes.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by fleury

Simply put, I think last season was an outlier. I don't see the soft hands or the same skating skill, but time will tell if I'm wrong. He's 21 which was a great accomplishment to reach those totals, but a guy who's 31st in points still doesn't deserve a $10M+ contract IMO. But again, future value projection so you never really know.

If you haven’t seen Tkachuk’s soft hands I’m not sure how closely you’ve been watching him. He’s arguably our most gifted player with the puck after Gaudreau.

Don’t mistake his lack of flash for a lack of skill. His hands in tight and around the net may actually be the best on the team.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Honest question

How many 100 point players have questions about their skating?

Phil Esposito

[Resolute 14]

Al MacInnis.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

If you haven’t seen Tkachuk’s soft hands I’m not sure how closely you’ve been watching him. He’s arguably our most gifted player with the puck after Gaudreau.

Don’t mistake his lack of flash for a lack of skill. His hands in tight and around the net may actually be the best on the team.

I’d also put Monahan in that same tier. Ridiculous hands around the net

[united]

On the most recent episode of 31 Thoughts: The Podcast, Elliotte Friedman indicates it was Marner himself who called an end to the standoff and accepted the Maple Leafs' offer.


Really poor job by Dubas in that case.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Phil Esposito

Lucky Luc

[Superfraggle]

Brett Hull

[Strange Brew]

Tim Kerr probably never got 100 points but he scored a ton of goals.

[blender]

The thing with the skating "concern" with regards to Tkachuk is that I've only really heard it raised on CP, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Also, while it is true that the NHL is getting faster and skating is an asset, it is far from a singular skill that seperate the best from the rest. If it was, players like Reider and Matt Lombardi would tear up the league. Being fast is good, but it probably isn't even a top 3 skill. Look at Gretzky (if you are old enough to remember watching him). He had a good skillset all around, obviously, but it was his elite vision and ability to think the game at an unprecedented level that made him the greatest to ever play.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by blender

The thing with the skating "concern" with regards to Tkachuk is that I've only really heard it raised on CP, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Also, while it is true that the NHL is getting faster and skating is an asset, it is far from a singular skill that seperate the best from the rest. If it was, players like Reider and Matt Lombardi would tear up the league. Being fast is good, but it probably isn't even a top 3 skill. Look at Gretzky (if you are old enough to remember watching him). He had a good skillset all around, obviously, but it was his elite vision and ability to think the game at an unprecedented level that made him the greatest to ever play.

"I skate to where the puck is going, not to where the puck has been"

Hockey IQ often trumps all other skills. Jason Allison made a modest career out of it despite having cinder blocks for skates.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Wasn't the Nylander deal similarly oddly specific

Every contract is specific. They don't just say the player gets somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,123,564.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

"I skate to where the puck is going, not to where the puck has been"

Hockey IQ often trumps all other skills. Jason Allison made a modest career out of it despite having cinder blocks for skates.

In today’s dollars he made 8, 9 and 11 million dollars, annually, in 3 of his last 4 years.

[stang]

Nm.