Five options at center for the New Jersey Devils
Nick Natale of New Jersey Hockey Now: A look at five centers the New Jersey Devils could target in free agency and their contract projection from AFP Analytics. Three are center-winger hybrids and two are bottom-six penalty killers.
Chandler Stephenson – five years at $5.6 million per.
Matt Duchene – three years at $4.8 million per.
Alexander Wennberg – four years at $3.85 million per.
Kevin Stenlund – two years at $1.3 million per.
Adam Gaudette – one year at $775,000.
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Could the Toronto Maple Leafs have Mitch Marner walk into free agency after next season?
SDPN: Chris Johnston when asked if the Toronto Maple Leafs could walk forward Mitch Marner to free agency after next season.
Jesse Blake: “Do you see the leafs coming to the conclusion that they can just have Mitch Marner on the roster and walk into free agency or would a stalemate in the negotiations force him to waive his no move and find a trading partner?
Johnston: “I think they’re very wary of making a bad trade, which you know, you would be every time you’re making a trade, but you know, if you’re, if you’re considering trading one of your franchises all-time best players, by, by points, by the kind of records Mitch is racked up. Still in the prime of his career.
I mean, the possibility that going awry, like you might never come out from under that. So I think that they’re not going to commit to ever, like ‘we have to do this.’ I think that you know, it’s more about what the marketplace yields. What they hear back from the Marner camp.
I mean, I think that they would walk them to free agency if they had to. Partially because they have no control over it. He literally has full control. Now it’s very, very rare for a player when he’s made to be felt unwelcome, or that the team wants to move on to say, ‘Well, I’m not moving and just you deal with it.’
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They have no control in the situation. I mean, that they have enough control that they can try to influence things a certain way but he’s got final say. That’s why those no-movement clauses are very punitive.