Maple Leafs GM isn’t concerned about offer sheets for Matthews and Marner
Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle isn’t worried about teams sending an offer sheet to Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner this offseason.
“Our salary-cap situation is set up that we can defend any of those threats with no worry at all,” Dubas said during a rare scrum with reporters after the Leafs practised at the MasterCard Centre on Monday.
“I know (offer sheets) have become a huge topic of late, but I spend zero per cent of my time having any worry about that.
“If a team wants to go down that path with us, that’s the way it goes, but our goal will be to continue to work with these players. The players have both stated they want to be here and it’s our goal to continue to work with them and their agents toward an agreement.”
Dubas has been talking with the agents for Matthews and Marner about an extension, but it’s not believed that negotiations are at a point where their contracts would be done soon.
Marner’s agent has said they’d prefer to get something done after the season.
Dubas doesn’t want another William Nylander situation and intends to have them both signed before July 1st. He wants to get them done as soon as possible.
Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey: Bob McKenzie was on TSN 1050 yesterday and was asked about potential offer sheets this offseason. McKenzie says he’ll “believe it when I see it,” but adds it could be the optimal time.
“But I mean honestly, I kind of gave up on offer sheets last year – this past summer – when Mark Stone didn’t get offer-sheeted. Because you could have given a one-year offer sheet on Mark Stone and the Ottawa Senators would not – if they matched it – they would not have been able to trade him this year. They would have had to let him walk to free agency. And a one-year offer sheet would have done that because you’re not allowed to trade a player within a year of matching the offer sheet.”
McKenzie adds that from his understanding there were teams that though hard about a one-year offer sheet.