Mikko Rantanen was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes from the Colorado Avalanche in a blockbuster three-way trade involving the Chicago Blackhawks. The trade made major headlines everywhere and many insiders stated that deals of similar stature would follow, with players pending contract extensions.
Mitch Marner, a forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs, is in the final year of his six-year, $65.3 million contract ($65,418,000 via Spotrac) and has not yet re-signed with the team. As the Leafs alternate captain, he carries a cap hit of $10.9 million per season and is anticipated to seek a significantly larger contract, especially with the salary cap projected to increase in the coming years.
While covering this week's "Saturday Night Headlines," NHL insider Elliotte Friedman opened up about speculations about a possible trade ahead of the deadline for Marner. As per Friedman, there was no point in comparing Rantanen to the 27-year-old as Mitch Marner's contract has an entire no-trade clause, and he would have to waive it to get traded.
While taking a subtle dig at the Leafs fans, Friedman said:
“So all the Leafs fans are like, how do we make this about the Leafs? So we're going to do that. You know, they're wondering, like, okay Rantanen got traded, Marner is there any comparison? No, there's not," Friedman said. (4:35 onwards) "Marner has a full no trade, no move clause. Rantanen had a partial. He could not block a trade to Carolina, so that situations are not comparable".
Eliotte Friedman predicts salary cap split within the league
Furthermore, Elliotte Friedman discussed the possibility that each team's eventual salary cap might reach $100 million on "Saturday Night Headlines." However, few teams would like to spend that much, keeping an internal check of their own.
"In two years, the cap is probably going to be over $100 million and there are teams that are not comfortable with that," Friedman said. "We talked about the salary progression now 14 million Draisaitl. There are teams saying that we're going to get a split.
"There'll be teams that have no problem going 100 million and above, but there be going to be others who were like, ‘We don't, we're not comfortable going there. We're going to have an internal cap’", he added.
Whether the Toronto Maple Leafs will be comfortable stretching out their salary cap to keep the Mitch Marner-Auston Matthews pairing remains to be seen. Their understanding with Marner, who has 68 points in 50 games this season, could be to have lower annual average value in his contract for the first few years with increments throughout the contract.