i'm thinking marner and bennett combined = $21 million per.

i believe the leafs will resign marner and let tavares walk. the largest current contract AAV is leon draisaitl at $14 million per. no way is marner getting more than that.

anyways, if marner wants the $$$ and willing to talk to others - including the blackhawks...looking at $13 million. bennett will look to double his salary, to some $8 million AAV. i definitely believe bennett is leaving florida. i'm guessing much of the marner story will be: if the leafs make it to the final and if marner tallies lots of points in the playoffs.

i'm thinking ehlers and duchene combined would cost apprx. $14 million. the issue here is duchene is 34 and will seek term. not excited about bertuzzi's term and i could be wrong about duchene. i'd give ehlers $9 million...he's on a point a game pace this season - not a superstar, but if he's at $9 million per, he's making more than sam reinhart. no bitching. he's european and we know about our soft europeans..all the way around is risky business. i felt strongly about reinhart last season, not the same risks as the others.

believe on 'daily faceoff', seravalli claims that the club has offered donato - 3 years at south of $4 million per.

that neighborhood is fine with me and wouldn't pay him anymore than that. the term? if donato wants 4 years, i'd say $3.5 million per. club still insists that a 2nd round pick was the best offer they received for donato.

I'd go no more than 10M total for him so 3x3.5M makes sense. I don't think it's great business to open up the bank when a guy is having a career year and will be 29 later this year.

Looks like this shitty franchise is still paying the price for covering up the crimes of a JORR-esque rubdown specialist, DPT.

yeah, money and term that should satisfy everyone. if donato believes he is an upper-echelon FWD, he'll get another bite of the contract apple at age 31, not 32, where his game may decline. they overpaid dickinson and foligno for a reason, there's no need to overpay donato. bertuzzi deal also looks bad, as of now.

donato has a few pluses, could play on the 3rd/4th lines. on the #1 PP unit, i feel as though nazar should play there instead. the issue here is that foligno, bertuzzi and dickinson make too much money as a whole, to be the 4th liners, they deserve to be characterized and selected as bottom 6 FWDs, for their lack of production 5x5. dickinson is sheltered by his specialist role as the 3rd line C. so, where do reichel, slaggert and dach play? they aren't top 6 FWDs either. the bertuzzi deal is hurting, GM kyle penciled him as a top 6 FWD/PP ace and now he's been relegated to the 4th line. never knew how bad a skater he really is. he has no agility at all. you can hide him on the PP, difficult to hide him 5x5.

have to applaud colin fraser. i believe he is getting paid by the club as a scout - i guess he had nothing better to do last night other than join caley and granato.

he specifically called out vlasic for bad defense, something caley nor granato wouldn't ever do. hopefully, it's a long slump and vlasic will be better off next season and beyond. now that sounds like caley or granato. waited for panger to tell us that knight may have a leak in his boat - anything above his elbows. no doubt every opponent is trying to go high on him.

for all the accolades the 23 y/o vlasic was and is still getting - especially from the bleacher nation guy (thought vlasic was on the cusp of team usa for the 4 nations) - the athletic didn't even list vlasic in it's top 7 nhl defensemen under the age of 25. definitely, a set-back year for him. club deserves the criticism, terrible performance at home against a below average seattle club that's just playing out the string. i guess the blackhawks beat them to it.

murphy and del mastro the 2 worst blackhawks according to analytics.

another loss, sad to see dach with the awkward looking injury. looked like his shoulder.

first LA goal was high...seeing a pattern. thought knight was strong, players in front of him always seem confused. thought slaggert should have challenged the shooter and not skated backwards - as if he was a defenseman. let kaiser defend low, you defend high.

blackhawks in st. louis this afternoon. the blues looking to solidify a playoff spot. nice write-up on kaiser. accentuates his skating and puck-moving ability.



https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6222021/2025/03/22/blackhawks-defenseman-wyatt-kaiser/

Been hearing his name a bit now. Not sure how he fits in long term.

only drawback is lack of size. i liked him and still like this player. the club has almost an embarrassment of riches in regards to 'can't miss' defense prospects/talent and the reality for me is: he'll get traded/allowed to sign with another club as a RFA and the club will get draft compensation in return. going forward, i have him penciled in as a 2nd-pairing d-man..

so, the hope is that korchinski will be the LD on a second pairing. kaiser is too good for 12 mins a game on a 3rd-pairing and will demand and get a salary that is 2nd-pairing money. rinzel is also in the mix as a RD, natural future replacement for murphy at RD. still have allen/crevier/del mastro in the wings and brodie under contract for another year.

GM kyle has to figure this out.

Let's not forget, Hawks possibly might take that D-man in the draft. I am hoping for the #2 pick and for them to take Misa.

right on cue, kaiser with a shaky first shift and giveaway. settled down. watched del mastro do a bertuzzi on a blues' break-out, soderblom stopped the shot on the ensuing 3x1. no comment from panger about these mistakes.

refs missing more penalties against the hawks..martinez tripped into the boards. hope he's ok.

thanks to the sloth on skates with a lazy penalty - mikheyev with a shorthanded goal. 20 seconds later, slaggert fails to score on a 1x1 with hofer. just more confirmation that him and dach are nice 4th line players - nothing more than that. waste of great skating and hard work by nazar.

bullshit goals against - the story of this club. always an inch away, 1/2 of a calorie of effort away to clearing their d-zone - 6 seconds later - in the back of the net.

A lot of speculation here. Even the best insiders don't have a good feel for how the Marner situation is going to play out. How the Leafs, and specifically Marner, do in the playoffs is going to go a long way in determining how this plays out. If Toronto goes out in meekly in round 1, I don't think Marner will be back. Toronto won't want to give him the bag and some team like Utah or Seattle will offer him 15ish M for 7 seasons. The Hawks don't want Bennett right now. He's going to sign a team-friendly deal taking advantage of the tax-free state. Granlund would be a decent signing as a top 6 forward to improve the offense.

_________________
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Breaking news, I'm dead, so are the Hawks and Connor Bedard



Im John Feinstein

yes, i also believe that the leafs' progress in the playoffs will play a role. the snicker in toronto is that marner's tie gets too tight, come playoff time.



as far as the rest...sure, it's speculation. if you look at the leafs' roster/contracts, both tavares and marner will be UFAs after this season. doesn't take much to believe that the leafs will let 35 y/o tavares walk, and that will free up a staggering $11 million. to me, easy to deduce that they will use that money to resign marner and RFA knies. why allow marner to walk, then need to negotiate against 30 other clubs, when they can get a deal done early?

as far as bennett, yes, you'd think he'd stay in florida. not so sure the panthers/tampa can afford him and others, if bennett allows other clubs to make offers. we'll see how it plays out.