In today’s NHL rumor rundown, most of the NHL rumor talk surrounds Mitch Marner and what the Toronto Maple Leafs plan to do while trying to negotiate a new deal with their prized RFA. There are more updates on Jacob Trouba and the Winnipeg Jets and what kind of money are the Golden Knights looking at having to spend on William Karlsson? He wants a long-term deal.
Marner Negotiations Needs to Move Quickly
Toronto won’t do with Marner what they did with William Nylander. Based upon comments made by GM Kyle Dubas, he has no desire to sit back and let the player and his agent dictate the speed of a new deal.
Kristen Shilton of TSN said Dubas admitted that he may not have managed William Nylander’s contract situation ideally and other media insiders are suggesting the Maple Leafs cannot afford to let this negotiation drag on.
TSN’s Darren Dreger suggested it was best the Maple Leafs offer be north of $10 million and perhaps, north of $11 million per year to encourage Marner to ignore the outside interest beyond July 1.Pierre LeBrun added, “Cannot allow Marner to be in an offer sheet situation. Make your very best offer to Marner by draft weekend.”
Dubas called getting Marner’s deal done priority #1 and everyone else has to wait, including a player like Jake Gardiner.
Related: NHL Rumors: Subban, Karlsson, Maple Leafs, More
More Talk on Jacob Trouba
Jared Clinton of The Hockey News offered up some projections on the salary cap and how it affects the Winnipeg Jets. He wrote that if the cap reaches the expected levels, the Jets will have $26 million to spend with Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor taking up about $14 million of that. That leaves about $12 million on the rest and not enough room to sign everyone.
Many are suggesting this is another sign that Jacob Trouba gets traded. He signed a one-year arbitration deal for $5.5 million last season and could do so again but at some point, there is a belief one of the two sides, if not both, needs to make a commitment. Trouba wants to be an unrestricted free agent in 2020 so getting him to do long-term deal might be difficult unless the big money is offered now.
Related: NHL Rumors: Babcock, McCrimmon, Sabres, More
William Karlsson Wants Long-Term Deal From Vegas
Golden Knights forward William Karlsson told David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he had some preliminary talks with the team before the playoffs and that now that the season is complete, he hopes to sign a long-term deal.
That means he wants to avoid arbitration because an arbitrator can only offer up to a one-year contract. Vegas would probably like to avoid that as well because he would then become an unrestricted free agent for 2020.
Karlsson had a down year but also a good year. He could reproduce the 43-goal season he had in 2017-18, instead, winding up with 24 goals and 56 points in 2018-19. This will help the Golden Knights heading into negotiations.
Considering how aggressive the Golden Knights have been in acquiring players like Paul Statsny, Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, they are quickly running out of money to throw around and they’ll need a fair contract for Karlsson based on the average of his two seasons.
Related: NHL Rumors: Mikheyev, Zuccarello, Jets, More
Jordan Weal Wants to Stay Put
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that there have been preliminary discussions between the Montreal Canadiens and Jordan Weal’s reps. LeBrun adds that Weal has interest in staying with the Canadiens and speculation is the Canadiens would like to keep him too.
