According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs are in lively negotiations for a sign-and-trade deal that may see Mitch Marner find yourself in Nevada. Friedman followed up on the preliminary report, stating that ahead Nicolas Roy is predicted to be a part of the return to Toronto if a deal is finalized. Just a few moments later, TSN’s Bruce Garrioch reported that the Maple Leafs requested defenseman Nicolas Hague within the return as properly.
Though sign-and-trades of this caliber are exceptionally uncommon, the Golden Knights’ motivation to make the transfer now, as a substitute of pursuing Marner for nothing in just a few days, is probably going twofold. Buying him with a brand new contract in place now eliminates all competitors for his companies, and would enable Vegas so as to add an eighth 12 months to his contract by way of Toronto.
In addition to the magnitude of the hypothetical commerce, the information comes with little shock. The Golden Knights aren’t any stranger to creating sizeable additions to the roster and have been linked to Marner by varied shops for a number of weeks.
Relying on the greenback quantity for Marner’s subsequent deal, Vegas ought to have the ability to get a deal completed fairly comfortably. Assuming Roy is within the commerce, the Golden Knights would have roughly $8.6M obtainable in cap area, with a further $8.8M obtainable if defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is headed for the long-term injured reserve.
Including Marner to a ahead core that already contains Jack Eichel and Mark Stone can be sufficient to create some of the dynamic offenses within the league. Eichel was the group’s chief in factors this previous season, scoring 28 targets and 94 factors in 77 video games. In the meantime, Marner not too long ago concluded one of the best particular person season of his profession, scoring 27 targets and 102 factors in 81 contests with a +18 score.
