What a Vancouver Canucks offer sheet to Mitch Marner would entail

The Vancouver Canucks are in a position where they could potentially extend an offer sheet to Toronto Maple Leafs RFA Mitch Marner. Let’s take a look at what it would cost.

The Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs are at different stages as teams. The Leafs are hoping to make a deep playoff run eventually with the core that hasn’t been able to get the job done for them in the past two Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Canucks are still building their core, but now have some key pieces in place in the form of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, and Quinn Hughes. They will look to add an additional piece of the puzzle at this year’s draft, where they hold the 10th overall selection.

The Leafs, on the other hand, have some extremely exciting young players such as Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Morgan Reilly, and Andreas Johnsson, with a mix of solid veteran players such as Patrick Marleau and John Tavares. One player who I haven’t mentioned yet, that is perhaps the best player on the Leafs roster, is Mitch Marner.

Marner was a fourth overall pick by the Leafs in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. As a result, Marner is now a restricted free agent. The Leafs, because of all the great players I mentioned above, are in a bit of a cap bind. Just last summer, they dished out big contracts to Tavares and Nylander, not to mention the Matthews extension — and are now tasked with paying Marner.

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This season, Marner picked up 94 points and played in all 82 games for the Leafs. As a result, Marner’s next contract won’t come cheap, and the Leafs, along with any team that is even considering extending an offer sheet to Marner, certainly knows that. So if the Canucks, who are in a position where they could potentially extend an offer sheet to Marner, did just that, what would it cost them?

Rory Boylen of Sportsnet does a great job of explaining how offer sheet’s work for those that don’t already know. As Boylen says:

The RFA offer sheet is a weapon in any GM’s arsenal, but it’s generally frowned upon in the community and not used very often. To make a decision uncomfortable for a competing GM, an offer sheet usually has to come in above market value, which can result in an inflated market for at least the near-future. This, in turn, can impact every other team and GM when they go to re-sign comparable RFAs of their own.

So because the Canucks know that the Leafs are going to have a tough time paying Marner what he’s worth, they could offer Marner even more. The Leafs can then decide to match the Canucks offer or to accept the draft pick compensation from the Canucks — which, in turn, would make Marner the newest addition to the Canucks. Could you imagine?

Marner, Pettersson, and Boeser flying up and down the ice. Marner killing penalties (which he does with the Leafs), and Marner on either power play unit. If you want to balance the lines you could even put Marner with Horvat, which, in my opinion, would result in Horvat hitting point totals that we fans likely have never even dreamed of. Just think of all the possibilities.

While that’s all fun to think about, let’s bring it back to reality and see what it would cost the Canucks to actually snatch up Marner. The offer sheet draft pick compensation is determined based on the dollar amount that the player is being paid by their new club. Keep in mind, all picks must be original picks belonging to the club, they can’t be acquired from other teams. Courtesy of Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, this is how the compensation scale looked a year ago.

So yes, it would be fun to see Marner in a Canucks uniform, but is it really worth giving up four first overall picks? Sportsnet’s Tim and Sid discussed on their show on Tuesday the possibility of a team offer sheeting Marner, and discussed the Canucks as a possible suitor. The only problem is, I can’t see Jim Benning being okay with moving out his first round picks for the next four years in order to acquire just a single player.

While it’s fun to speculate, it’s far more likely that the Canucks, if they were to offer sheet a Leafs player, would have their sights set on Kapanen or Johnsson — both of whom will be restricted free agents this Summer. What do you think Canucks fans? Should the Canucks roll the dice and go big with an offer sheet to Marner? Let me know in the comments section below!