Treliving Taking Care Of Business

The Toronto Maple Leafs cleared nearly all of their big contract issues, signing former captain John Tavares to a four-year deal before the NHL Draft on Friday and on Sunday locking up winger Matthew Knies to a six-year contract extension less than 48 hours before the beginning of free agency.

The 22-year-old’s deal has an AAV of $7.75 million, less than the eight-year max deal the Leafs reportedly wanted and more than a bridge deal that Knies representatives were pushing for. The deal is comparable to the signing last week of winger JJ Peterka after the 23-year-old was traded from Buffalo to Utah. The Knies deal is arguably much better than Peterka’s deal, since he was for signed for five years at slightly less ($7.7 million), while the Leafs got the bigger forward more suited to the direction of the league for an extra year.

GM Brad Treliving has been proactive and, for a change, made signings that are team-friendly and fair for both sides, and puts Toronto in a favorable position going into July 1. The salaries for Tavares ($4.388 million and Knies ($7.75 million) are just slightly less than their combined salaries last season, which gives the Leafs nearly all of Mitch Marner’s $10.9 million salary to work with on Tuesday.  

Marner Trade Still Possible?

The intrigue regarding soon-to-be-former Leaf Mitch Marner continues as the beginning of free agency approaches. On Sunday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on his 32 Thoughts podcast chatter involving a possible deal with the Vegas Golden Knights involving center Nicolas Roy and possibly restricted free agent defenseman Nic Hague. Early Monday, Hague was dealt to Nashville for forward Colton Sissons and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon.

The deal added nearly $5 million in salary on the Golden Knights books, which makes it more likely, even with defenseman Alex Pietrangelo potentially missing the entire season recovering from multiple surgeries (as The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported on Sunday) that Vegas will have to clear salary to make a Marner signing possible.

Friedman reported that Vegas does not want to move out center William Karlsson, center Tomas Hertl, or forward Ivan Barbashev, but Roy was a possibility with two years remaining at an AAV of $3 million. Another factor in a possible deal between the two clubs is that the reported accusations of the Golden Knights tampering on Marner.

The 100-point winger has been connected in rumors to Vegas for the last couple of weeks, almost to the exclusion of other clubs like Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Carolina who are looking for a star scoring forward. David Alter of the Hockey News indicated that if Vegas is found guilty of tampering, it could lead to up to a $5-million fine, termination of any contracts that were signed, a forfeiture of draft picks, awarding draft picks or cash to the offended club, and that Marner himself could be subjected to a fine of up to $1 million or possibly face a suspension.

Tampering allegations could be difficult to prove, but Vegas may be willing to do a sign-and-trade to get Marner at a more favorable number, clear cap space by sending Roy to Toronto, and make the situation go away. If he signs with Vegas, the allegations themselves and an ensuing investigation into tampering charges would tarnish the Golden Knights and Marner going forward.