Toronto Maple Leafs: Don’t expect the offer sheet discussion to stop
With the topic of offer sheets dominating headlines especially when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs, general manager Kyle Dubas addressed the issue but did it have the desired effect?
If you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan tired of hearing about the potential of offer sheets, don’t expect this to change anytime soon.
General manager Kyle Dubas addressed the media on Monday afternoon to discuss a couple of topics surrounding his team, and offer sheets was one of them. It must have been frustrating for the rookie GM to see this get to a point where he has to address it in December, but it comes with the territory.
Rarely are teams in a position where they need to worry about major player getting offer sheeted, as most are signed well before that can be a possibility. There’s still a lot of time for the Leafs to get Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner signed to new deals, but we know the latter doesn’t want to negotiate during the season.
This was a topic on the last episode of the Tip of the Tower Podcast after the Leafs signed William Nylander to a new contract, and we looked at whether offer sheets are something to worry about.
If there’s anything you can take from Dubas’ scrum, it was his lack of desire to entertain any thought where an offer sheet would be a problem. At no point did he even seemed concerned and it was evident with a definite statement.
"“I look around the league right now and for whatever reason, it seems like the Toronto Maple Leafs are the only team that’s going to be the target of an offer sheet. It seems interesting to me, but there’s about a third of the teams in the league that have a very highly talented [pending] restricted free agent — and some of them have more than one, as we do,” Dubas said to reporters on Monday.“Our salary cap situation is set up that we could defend any of those threats with no worry at all. I know that they’ve become a huge topic of late, but I spend zero per cent of my time having any worry about that.”"
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What can help Dubas end this discussion is getting a deal done with his restricted free agents, but even if he wants to get it done sooner rather than later it also depends on what the player’s desires are.
When it comes to Marner, many believe that since he is a hometown player, his contract should not be as much of an issue, but recent comments from Paul Marner (Mitch’s father) shouldn’t make Leafs fans comfortable.
Marner’s agent Darren Ferris also spoke with with Craig Custance on the Full 60 Podcast, and there’s reason to believe the Leafs could be in for a tough negotiation.
At the same time, Marner is the one who should be driving these negotiations and taking “advice” from his agent and father. If he wants to avoid what Nylander went through, he should have a number in mind and hope the negotiations can go as smooth as they can.
Nylander spoke with Gino Reda of TSN recently, saying that he advised Matthews and Marner to get their deals done before the seasons starts. Hopefully, the Leafs young stars see what their young teammate went through and want to avoid it which they should, considering they were asked about it constantly.
One thing Dubas did make clear, is he wants to have ink on a contract for Matthews and Marner before July 1, which is when teams can sign restricted free agents to offer sheets. Until then, don’t expect the conversation to change.
Next. Explaining Frederik Andersen’s December slump. dark
What do you think about the ongoing discussions about offer sheets? Is it going to be a problem going forward, or is it something that will hang around the rest of the season. Let us know in the comments below.