With the NHL preseason and training camps underway there are still some big-name RFAs without new deals. Two, in particular, are Brayden Point and Mikko Rantanen.
Joe Sakic, general manager of the Colorado Avalanche, has come out and said that the Avs are not willing to pay Mitch Marner money to Rantanen. For those of you that don’t know Mitch Marner signed an extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs to a tune of six years and $65.36 million overall. That’s a $10.89 million a year contract.
Gerry Johannson, agent to Brayden Point, has recently come out and said to TSN 650 that Point’s camp and the Lightning are, “Not even close.” That doesn’t sound good, but the Lightning have said that they are confident they will get a bridge deal together that Point will agree to, despite some rumors of a trade to Detroit swirling.
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It seems to me that Marner signing that big contract has done very little to set the dominoes in motion with the other RFAs. Many, including myself, thought that once Marner signed everyone else would know where they fit in and all would be well.
Yet here we are full steam ahead into training camp and preseason and Point and Rantanen are still not playing.
What’s the holdup? How far off can they possibly be? Point had a tremendous season last year with 92 points in 79 games. The season before he had 66 points in 82 games with a much smaller role on the power play than he had this season.
In contrast, Mitch Marner had seasons of 94 points in 82 games last season and 69 points in 82 games last season. I believe Point is the better overall player. I’d take him on my team over Marner any day.
Let’s look and Rantanen’s numbers over the last two seasons. In 2018-19 he had 87 points in 74 games and in 2017-18 he posted 84 points in 81 games. Just by that snip it there Rantanen isn’t in Mitch Marner territory, so I think the Avalanche has some leverage and data to support them when they say they aren’t paying Marner money.
So I would have to imagine that we will see Rantanen sign with the Avs long-term around the $9.5 million a year for six to seven years just before the season starts or shortly afterward. So sit tight Avs fans. Mikko is coming. Eventually.
As far as Brayden Point goes I think this is where it gets interesting. Like I’ve said I believe Point is the better overall player. His point production is higher than Marner’s and you can’t really argue that one player is playing next to better talent than the other. We’d be cutting hairs. So let’s not go there.
I believe Point will sign a bridge deal after the season has started at around $10 million a season for two to three years. This will require a trade to free up the additional cap space needed to get the deal done as the Lightning according to capfriendly.com have just shy of $8.5 million of cap space this season.
So you may have to sit tight a little longer Tampa Bay, but Point will remain a Lightning and we will see a trade come soon. Winnipeg is fishing for a defenseman and Tampa has some of those. Maybe that’s the solution there? I’ll speculate who that would entail another time.