Vegas Golden Knights: Mitch Marner’s deal highlights McPhee’s brilliance

As the Vegas Golden Knights got back to work, one of the biggest sagas of the off-season came to a close this weekend after the Toronto Maple Leafs finally signed restricted free agent Mitch Marner to a new deal.

In a storyline that had more twists and turns to it than a HBO masterpiece, the Leafs looked likely to enter training camp without one of their main offensive weapons but were able to thrash out a new contract just in the nick of time, vindicating the Vegas Golden Knights in the process.

You are probably wondering where the Golden Knights enter into this conversation and that is a good question but, before we try to answer that, let’s first delve into the finer details of Marner’s new and lucrative deal.

Knowing just how important the elite forward is to their chances of ending their lengthy Stanley Cup drought, Toronto agreed to hand Marner a six-year, $65,358,000 contract with an average annual value of $10,893,000.

As a result, the Maple Leafs are now committed to shelling out well over $30 million combined on Marner, Auston Matthews and John Tavares. Now, all three are elite players but when you consider that Toronto will have seven defensemen enter next summer as either restricted or unrestricted free agents, this off-season is probably just a taste of what is to come for this storied franchise when it comes to battling with the salary cap while trying to keep a Stanley Cup contending roster intact.

In other words, it won’t be easy and General Manager Kyle Dubas will have his work cut out again next summer when it comes to restructuring his blueline, while ensuring that there is depth throughout the lineup. After all, as good as Tavares, Matthews and Marner are – and the latter two have the potential to become true elite hockey players – they can’t carry this team on their backs by themselves.

This is where the Vegas Golden Knights and President of Hockey Operations George McPhee come in. As much as McPhee and the front office have been criticised and scrutinized this off-season for trading away key pieces in Colin Miller and Erik Haula, in addition to also trading Russian stud and potential NHL wildcard Nikita Gusev to the New Jersey Devils, they have built this team the right way and Marner’s new contract proves that.

McPhee has developed a reputation throughout his career as a GM in the NHL for being ruthless when it comes to constructing a roster, and he’s taken that to a whole new level in Sin City with the Golden Knights. After creating a championship caliber team from the unwanted remains of the NHL’s 30 other teams in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, McPhee and his lieutenant and now Vegas General Manager, Kelly McCrimmon have built a roster that can compete for the next few years at least.

They have done that by being ahead of the curve and being extremely shrewd in negotiations, opting to be proactive rather than reactive by locking down the likes of Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith and William Karlsson to team-friendly and long-term deals while they were still in the midst of proving themselves again in the NHL.

All three carry less than $6 million in average annual value and those deals will continue to look like masterstrokes by McPhee and the front office if Karlsson, Marchessault and Smith can carry on what they have started with this franchise.

Even Max Pacioretty, who is a proven commodity in the NHL with at least 35 points in his last eight seasons, is taking home significantly less than what Marner now will, and the same applies to Paul Stastny who again has established himself as a high-end top six forward in the majors.

In-fact, the only player on the Golden Knights roster earning anything close to what Marner will now earn is Mark Stone, who carries an average annual value of $9,500,000 and he’s under contract through 2026-27, which means that Vegas will have the Selke Trophy finalist under their control for the duration of his prime years and more.

Although McPhee, McCrimmon and the rest of the front office took a gamble by opting to pull the trigger by trading Nikita Gusev to the New Jersey Devils, it was a calculated risk given that they have extreme faith not only in the star-studded roster they have carefully pieced together, but also in their farm system which was significantly replenished this off-season.

With high-end offensive weapons in Cody Glass, Peyton Krebs and Pavel Dorofeyev on the cusp of making the leap to the NHL, the front office could afford to sacrifice a player of Gusev’s undoubted potential in order to ensure their big hitters and most valuable weapons were well looked after, knowing that there is rich talent oozing out of the farm system.

The same applies to the blueline. Colin Miller had fallen out of favor with Head Coach Gerard Gallant during the latter stages of 2018-19, so deciding to cut their losses and trade him to the Buffalo Sabres was no big deal when you consider that you have stud defensemen in Nic Hague, Jimmy Schuldt, Jake Bischoff, Zach Whitecloud and Dylan Coghlan all chomping at the bit to crack the big leagues.

This Vegas Golden Knights roster as it is currently constituted is built to compete for multiple championships for years to come and the front office deserve credit for how they have orchestrated the rise of this team. They have boasted street smarts and extreme savviness when in negotiations with their top dogs, not caving to ridiculous demands and getting out in front of contract drama nice and early.

The end result? A loaded and extremely talented core that will grow together, improve together and, hopefully, win a couple of Stanley Cups together before it is time for their window to shut. But, thanks to the genius of George McPhee and the rest of the front office when it comes to how they have dished out contracts for this team, that window will be open for a while yet.

Now, we aren’t by any means disparaging Marner’s talents or his worth to the Maple Leafs; he did after all accumulate 26 goals and 68 assists for 94 points in 82 games for a career year in 2018-19. But, it is fair to suggest that an average annual value of $10,893,000 is a steep price to pay for a gifted but young forward who only has a small sample size of work to lean on so far.

That is why McPhee and company deserve credit for the way they have built a long-term Stanley Cup roster without putting the short-term future of this team in salary cap jeopardy later down the road.