The Las Vegas Golden Knights are going after Mitch Marner, as they should.
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ pending free agent is one of the best two-way players in the NHL, and he’s the unquestioned best player available this offseason.
The latest reports indicate that the Golden Knights are pursuing a sign-and-trade with the Maple Leafs to get Marner an eighth year on his contract that can only come if he first signs with Toronto.
Doing that would give Marner something like an eight-year, $112 million ($14 million AAV) deal.
And if that happens, the salary cap gets tight in a hurry in Vegas.
The Athletic’s Jesse Granger breaks it down like this:
“The cap-ceiling bump to $95.5 million certainly helps, but assuming Marner gets between $12 million and $14 million per year (his current projected market value), that would give Vegas close to $50 million (more than half of the total cap) committed to only five players (Marner, Jack Eichel, Alex Stone, Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore). Beyond that, Vegas would have more than $80 million (upward of 80 percent of the cap) committed to its top 10 players, leaving little cap space to fill the rest of the roster out.”
MORE: The reason Mitch Marner doesn’t want to return to the Maple Leafs
It’s not a terrible problem to have.
At least having Eichel and Marner atop the roster can make any team a contender.
But it’s a long season. Injuries happen. Stars can’t be relied on to carry the load every night.
There is certainly an outcome here where Vegas has a crucial gap that it can’t fill because of its salary allocations elsewhere.
Does that mean the Golden Knights should cease chasing Marner? Not at all. But it’s a tricky reality they’re willing to enter.
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