Favourite to Land Leafs' Mitch Marner Emerges Just a Week Out from Free Agency

Almost right after the Toronto Maple Leafs were ousted from the playoffs, everyone started speculating on whether or not that would be the end for Mitch Marner in a Maple Leafs sweater.

Fast forward about a month later and he's all but walking into free agency as the most sought after free agent since Artemi Panarin in 2019. With that being said, there will be plenty of suitors, including from some of the top teams in the league.

The Vegas Golden Knights have always been the one team in particular that is willing to gamble on their future for the right player, and as Elliotte Friedman alludes to, the hockey world is essentially waiting on what they do come July 1st.

The Knights have a lot of work to do if they're serious about Marner as they have $9.615 million in cap space, while losing out on several roster players like Reilly Smith and Brandon Saad.

What could throw a wrench in a lot of teams' plans is that Marner could be looking for a shorter-term deal in the range of 2 years. A player of Marner's ilk generally signs to the maximum 7 years when they hit free agency, but something like that could push other suitors away - and perhaps bring Vegas closer to a reality, as the team tends to prefer to turn players over relatively quickly.

Vegas has a proclivity of making big moves, like acquiring Jack Eichel, Tomas Hertl, or Mark Stone, and just when everyone thinks it's got to finally end because of their salary cap situation, they manage to find a way to top their previous move.

A short-term deal for Vegas might actually be the best-case scenario for both sides since Marner can cash in one more time on a more lucrative contract and the Knights don't have to sign another player to yet another long-term deal.

Marner's market will extend beyond the contending teams and into the middle of the pack, so look for Anaheim, Utah, and Los Angeles to be in the mix too.

However, like Friedman mentions, many think Vegas will be the team to beat. At least for the Leafs' sake, he wouldn't be in the Eastern Conference and having to play them 3 or 4 times a year.