I firmly believe that if Marner was willing to sign a Nylander-like extension, it would have been done well before now. And that’s including the fact Nylander’s $11.5 million cap hit, bumped up percentage-wise for a $92.5 million cap, would mean something in the neighborhood of a $12.1 million contract over eight years.
That would be the fifth-highest AAV in the league next year, trailing only Leon Draisaitl ($14 million), Matthews ($13.25M), Nathan MacKinnon ($12.6M) and Connor McDavid ($12.5 million), the true elite of the elite — four players who have won the last five league MVPs.
But it won’t be enough to get this deal done.
McDavid would be 15+ if he signed today.
Still, not sure about spending 12M on Marner. Even Willy is pretty steep.
I think Marner is probably worth more than Nylander because he just does so much more. But I agree that Nylander is probably getting $1M more than he “should” be. I do think Marner would get $13M easy from another team for sure though.
I hope the cap actually goes up $9M next year. Plus getting “back” ~$5M from Tavares’ new contract. Then I don’t really care what they give him! Shower him with jewels for all I care!