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2025-2026 Off Season Thread - The Rehappening

Why would any other team give him $14M? I just don't get it.

He'd be so valuable to bullshit markets like Anaheim and Utah that they'd tie up so much money in him, when guys like Rantanen signed for $12M? How can they justify paying so much more for a guy who accomplished so much less that the other guy who only signed like a month ago?

I just don't get any of this. His best shot at having his cake and eating it too is staying with his hometown team that drafted him, at a discount, made up for and thensome with sponsorships. What the fuck is going on? I still won't accept that this is a pure money thing.
 
because teams down south need to sell tickets to fickle fans, for that they need a star that helps them make the playoffs
 
He'd be so valuable to bullshit markets like Anaheim and Utah that they'd tie up so much money in him, when guys like Rantanen signed for $12M? How can they justify paying so much more for a guy who accomplished so much less that the other guy who only signed like a month ago?

They can’t get Rantanen.

Besides Tavares cap hit% on next years cap is $13.2 mill and Marner is way better. Why would the Leafs do that after Stamkos just signed for $8?
 
I don't follow. Rantanen is arguably better than Marner, and indisputably better in the playoffs. He just signed for $12M. Why would teams break the bank to pay Marner $2M more than that, basically making him what the second or third highest paid player in the league? Rumors say Carolina wants to do that. Why didn't they just throw $14M at Rantanen then?

Stamkos gave TB the hometown discount and had the infamous FL tax advantage.
 
I don't follow. Rantanen is arguably better than Marner, and indisputably better in the playoffs. He just signed for $12M. Why would teams break the bank to pay Marner $2M more than that, basically making him what the second or third highest paid player in the league? Rumors say Carolina wants to do that. Why didn't they just throw $14M at Rantanen then?

Stamkos gave TB the hometown discount and had the infamous FL tax advantage.
Tax free state.

Rantanen did not want to be in Carolina.
 
Milt Dunnell, who you should read if you get the chance, lived and wrote into his early 100's. If there is a Canadian Journalism Mount Rushmore, he would be on it. (Angelo Dundee wouldn't start any Mohammed Ali press conference until Milt had arrived)

He died in 2008.

When asked who was the best Leaf goalie of all time, he didn't hesitate to say "Turk Broda".
Not who was the best of his era, but who was the best period.

There were lots of fantastic goalies, who would still be fantastic today.

Imagine being Glenn Hall? He had to face Bobby Hull in practice everyday shooting at him at 100 miles per hour without a mask.
No wonder he would have to stop every game to go to the dressing room to throw up.

The skills that made a goalie good before the 90s are not the same skills that make one good now.

Its barely the same position and its played completely differently than it was before 1990.
 
I don't follow. Rantanen is arguably better than Marner, and indisputably better in the playoffs. He just signed for $12M. Why would teams break the bank to pay Marner $2M more than that, basically making him what the second or third highest paid player in the league? Rumors say Carolina wants to do that. Why didn't they just throw $14M at Rantanen then?

Stamkos gave TB the hometown discount and had the infamous FL tax advantage.

signing Rantanen for $12 isn’t an option.

competition drives price.

Again, why would we sign Tavares for $11 mill and make him the second highest paid player in the league when Kopitar made $10, Malkin $9.5, Crosby $8.7, Stamkos $8.5.
 
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Marner might find his agent isn’t able to play other NHL GMs the way he played Dubas.

I still don’t see Chicago or SJ breaking the bank when they have better players in house on RFA deals. Utah has Clayton Keller signed at 7.15/yr. Are they really going to pay Marner double that for an extra 10 regular season points? I don’t doubt there’s at least one dummy GM out there, but doesn’t seem likely to be a bidding war to make Marner the highest paid player in the league.
 
I found that a weird case. He residence was still in Canada when he received that bonus, no?

No. The bonus was paid the day he signed the contract while he lived in NY.

CRA was trying to argue that it was a prepayment for work that would be performed in Canada. That would have fucked us.
 
Marner might find his agent isn’t able to play other NHL GMs the way he played Dubas.

I still don’t see Chicago or SJ breaking the bank when they have better players in house on RFA deals. Utah has Clayton Keller signed at 7.15/yr. Are they really going to pay Marner double that for an extra 10 regular season points? I don’t doubt there’s at least one dummy GM out there, but doesn’t seem likely to be a bidding war to make Marner the highest paid player in the league.


I’m one of the biggest Marner haters around and even I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t find someone to pay him at least $14M.

Whatever else you can say about him, he’s a 100-point winger that will greatly help any team actually get to the playoffs. And just getting back into the playoffs in the first place is the name of the game for a whole bunch of teams.

The fact that the cap’s gone up so much is another factor is Mitch’s favour.
 
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