The Toronto Maple Leafs will look to defeat the Ottawa Senators on Monday night and hope to advance to the second round of the Eastern Conference Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Maple Leafs have played well in the first four games of the postseason, and Mitch Marner has been a big reason for that. Marner, one of the top players in the NHL, took his 102-point season and carried that into the playoffs, already posting seven points to start the postseason.
However, at some point, the Maple Leafs will face the reality of losing him in free agency, and some believe that's what will happen.
In a recent prediction from Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, he had Marner testing the market and grabbing a $14 million AAV deal.
“To the surprise of no one, Marner is the No. 1 pending unrestricted free agent available this summer. Our friends at AFP Analytics projected Marner to earn $100.6 million on an eight-year deal ($12.6 million AAV) in their midseason projections. AFP’s final end-of-season projections are expected to be released in mid-May.
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“Coupling the difficulty in acquiring true difference makers with the rapidly rising salary cap, though, and it’s not difficult to envision a world where Marner earns closer to a $14 million AAV if he makes it to market,” Servalli wrote.
If Marner hits free agency, it doesn't mean that the Maple Leafs will lose him.
However, the team will likely have to give him a massive deal, unless he takes a discount, which wouldn't make sense from his perspective. Regardless, Marner should be looking at an enormous deal, whether it be for seven or eight years.
He's well deserving of anything that comes his way over the next few months, and the Maple Leafs understand that, but also know they have to pay up.