Toronto Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner will be the top free agent available this summer and will be highly sought after.
Marner will be looking to cash in on a massive deal this summer. The website PuckGM allows users to create trades and signings, and one user predicts Marner will sign a seven-year, $98 million deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The deal pays Marner $14 million per season, which is what he is expected to get on the open market. The Hurricanes also make sense for Marner as Carolina is a legit Stanley Cup contenders who also have cap room.
According to PuckPedia, the Hurricanes are projected to have just over $29 million in cap space. So, Carolina will be able to go after the big names, and none is bigger than Marner.
Meanwhile, at the trade deadline, the Hurricanes showed an interest in trading for Marner. As Carolina was looking to trade Mikko Rantanen, the Hurricanes asked for Marner in return, but the deal never came to fruition. So, perhaps this summer, Carolina will have interest in Marner again and try to sign him in free agency.
Marner is in the final year of his six-year, $65.41 million deal with the Maple Leafs. He set a career-high this season with 102 points.
Maple Leafs Coach Wants Marner to Shoot More
Toronto is currently playing the Florida Panthers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Maple Leafs won the first two games of the series but lost Games 3 and 4, so the series is now tied. In the two games Toronto lost, Marner failed to record a shot on goal, and Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube wants to see more offense from his star forward.
“Sometimes your top guys, they’re looking to get too good of a chance sometimes instead of just putting the puck on net,” Berube said on May 12. “I think there’s times where we could put more pucks on net at angles, bad angles, just firing it in there with people going to the net. You never know, it goes off somebody, rebounds or anything like that.
“I think Mitch could just be a little bit more direct in that area,” Berube added. “He has the puck a lot, we know that, and he’s got to look to put more pucks to the net. I get what he’s trying to do, he wants to upgrade his chance, upgrade the chance. He’s a passer first, we know that, but we need him to shoot pucks too. So yeah, I agree with you on that. Two games without a shot, he’s got to shoot the puck.”
Marner has 2 goals and 10 assists in 12 playoff games.
Marner Not Focused on Looming Free Agency
Although Marner is a pending free agent on July 1, he has made it clear he isn’t focusing on that.
Before the season began, Marner said he was just focusing on hockey and wouldn’t discuss an extension. That has remained true, as speaking to The Athletic in April, he once again confirmed his focus was just on hockey and not his looming free agency.
“I’m here to just play hockey,” Marner told The Athletic. “That’s what I expressed (to the media) at the start of the year and express now. It’s a business out there. I know what’s going on. I’m just here to play hockey. I’m here to enjoy everything and go through the ups and downs with these guys, and just take it day by day and try to help us win games.”
For now, Marner is focused on the Maple Leafs’ playoffs. Toronto returns to the ice for Game 5 on May 14 at 7 p.m. ET.
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