Top RFA offer sheet bait
Jared Clinton of The Hockey News: Mitch Marner topic screams offer sheet right now. Keep in mind, there has not been an offer sheet in six years now. On the other hand, that has not stopped speculation or general managers from at least fishing for one. More importantly, here is this year’s compensation chart via Gord Miller.
Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs comes across as a big winner potentially. The forward racked up 26 goals and 94 points last season and his point comparables come dangerously close to John Tavares. Mitch Marner is an accomplished playmaker who can kill penalties, and play in all situations. Toronto’s cap space is limited to a $10-11 million AAV could be problematic.
Brayden Point was mentioned previously and would still be a candidate as Tampa Bay has several moving assets to consider. Tampa would likely pay Point somewhere around $8.5 million.
Kasperi Kapanen and William Karlsson round out this edition. Kapanen’s speed intrigues many teams while Karlsson has 30-goal, 60-point potential. It is not like Kapanen could get there.
Karlsson could command $6.5 million and maybe more if someone gambles all in and pushes their chips to the dealer. It’s going to be a wild summer.
Top restricted free agent centers
Steven Ellis of The Hockey News: Could this be the year where there is fire as opposed to smoke in the restricted free agent market? Several juicy options exist out there including Brayden Point. Point totaled 92 points and is just 23. Therefore, he likely has a few prime seasons to go before he even hits unrestricted free agency. Tampa needs a team to take one of their bigger “headache” contracts off their hands.
After the big headline center, Sebastian Aho is hardly a drop-off. It looks like he will be signed to somewhere around an $8 million times eight scenario. Aho is only 21 as well.
Then, there is William Karlsson. Karlsson enjoyed the breakout season in 2017-18 only to come back to Earth a bit last year. Still, the center tallied 56 points and 24 goals and could command a $5.5 to $6.5 million AAV with ease.
Finally, Ryan Donato and Alexander Kerfoot are both players who could come cheap and produce bigger numbers in the future. Donato has 50-plus point potential as well as Kerfoot. Donato may garner a few more dollars but honestly, Kerfoot is about on the same level.