Drai's one ELC season that he was better than Willy came when he was playing almost exclusively on mcdavid's wing.
And willy played on Matthews wing almost exclusively and got 16 less points. As I said, a good starting point to as for Leon money, but this is a guy that proved he could play center at the NHL level and proved he can score a lot more than willy on the wing.
The difference between the two isn't as much as marner Vs Matthews, but there's no chance they were equivalents.
Literally all the numbers say they were equivalents on their ELCs.
I'd still take Leon over Willy.
I would have been pretty upset if the leafs paid him center money tbh. Whether it's his fault out not, if you haven't proven longterm to be an NHL center you can't possibly pay him center money. In the end they paid him market value for a winger of his caliber (maybe 200-300k more if we're being generous).
They only reason he isn't playing centre is: 1. they drafted Auston Matthews, and; 2. they signed John Tavares. The team took away his opportunity. At minimum, this has to come into consideration for his post-ELC.
It's a weak argument. Had Marner panned out as an elite center they likely would not have gone after Tavares in the first place.
We're talking about Nylander and he never got the opportunity to 'pan out'.
My bad, I meant Willy. Got Marner on the brain.
I don't love the idea of paying a third line center 7 mil. Would much rather stack the top two lines. Willy, Mitch, JT and willy should be playing 20 minutes per night.
Does this mean Willy needs to play 40?
I don't love the idea of paying a third line center 7 mil. Would much rather stack the top two lines. Willy, Mitch, JT and willy should be playing 20 minutes per night.