Wild Avalanche SIGNING Incoming? - This is Absolutely Wild | Avalanche News

Is there a wild signing coming to the Colorado Avalanche soon? Well, according to Nathan McKinnon, there is a very particular player he's gone out in defense of throughout these last few seasons, and that wouldn't be too bad to him if they signed this player. And yes, I am talking about Mitch Marner. Now, before you get your pitchforks up, let's actually go through and discuss what a signing like that would look like and what he could possibly bring to the Colorado Avalanche, as well as some disadvantages to signing a player like that. This is Avalanche Digest. What is up, Avs Nation? This is your number one source for all of your Avs news. So if you're not subscribed already, just go ahead and do so, and I promise you won't regret it. But let's get right into it. So in case you don't know, this is Mitch Marner. He was a fourth overall pick in 2015, and he actually just had a career year with 102 points with 27 goals. He is six foot and 28 years of age. So going into, obviously this is a contract year, so going into free agency, he's got age on his side and he's had the best season in his career. So that definitely sort of shows that this will not be that cheap of a contract. And obviously, offensively, there's a lot to like. And really, the entire question of why the Avalanche should even possibly go after a guy like Mitch Marner came from this article right here from Colorado Hockey Now. This is by Arif Dean, and he kind of just goes through a bunch of different reasons as to why Marner would potentially want to sign with the Avs in the first place. I mean, really, the most interesting superstar the Avs could add, he goes on, would be Marner. He would definitely appreciate hiding in the shadows. The media circus in Toronto, if that's how you want to call it, and that's absolutely how I would call it, has been pretty critical of Marner more than any other player in their franchise for this entire core of William Nylander and Matthews and Marner and Tavares. Their entire tenure, Mitch Marner has gotten the most criticism out of every single player. Some justified, some really not, in my opinion. And we saw at the Canadian Four Nations Tournament, when there were other players like David and McKinnon and McCarr and Jack and just so many other players playing with 14 Canada, Marner actually was able to kind of do well in his own right, not having to be the only guy and kind of having a bit of the bright lights on different players. So it really did benefit him in that tournament, not being the main guy. And honestly, I think that there are points that are correct. He would appreciate to still play for a Stanley Cup contender. And McKinnon has very publicly gone out in defense of Mitch Marner in the past. He's actually kind of without really being prompted all that much, defended Marner and saying he gets a lot of flack, but he's honestly one of the best players in the league. They are publicly friends. I mentioned that Four Nations Tournament again. In the beginning of it, Marner and McKinnon are always hanging out together. They're always laughing, sharing inside jokes. And again, Marner, along with Crosby and McKinnon, went to Vail, Colorado and had their own little personal training camp. And fun enough, Cal Ritchie was actually there as well. He was invited. So that's kind of a little bittersweet knowing that. But yeah, Marner is very much friends with Nathan McKinnon and Nathan McKinnon definitely respects Mitch Marner. I think a guy like Nathan McKinnon could honestly serve Marner pretty well because there are times during the playoffs and during big moments where Marner needs to get his head in the game. And I think a player like McKinnon could honestly serve that. But let's look at Marner even more. Like I said, he's six foot and 181. He's not a super strong player, but he's actually fairly good defensively, surprisingly enough. He's known as a two way forward and a very good playmaker. He's had some several good 25 plus school seasons, and he's been a fairly successful player in his career, at least in the regular seasons. If you look at the playoff numbers, it's not something that's going to blow you away. But when you hear a lot of the flack that Marner gets, it's really not that bad looking at the playoff numbers and then thinking, oh, wow, this guy's lit up on a constant basis for decent numbers in the playoffs. I mean, he's not like he's some type of Matt Duchene or something like that. He's fairly good. However, he definitely needs to be more defensively oriented when it comes to the playoffs because that two way forward capabilities just falls off in the playoffs. But under a different system with different players, possibly a more motivating player like Nathan McKinnon, just a completely different culture in the Colorado Avalanche, it's possible that Marner could thrive. And really, I think it's an interesting and really fun thing to talk about Mitch Marner in this way. I think Mitch Marner is good. I honestly wouldn't mind if he was part of the Colorado Avalanche. However, when you look at other reports, like how much money he could potentially want, I mean, the Leafs did try to sign Mitch Marner to a contract extension and apparently were willing to give him the largest contract in franchise history. So looking at Austin Matthews contract, Austin Matthews makes about $13.4-ish million annual average per year. If Mitch Marner was either going to make close to that or a little bit more and still turn that down, in my opinion, there is no way the Colorado Avalanche should really try pursuing this player at all. They had the same problem with Mikko Rantanen and Mikko Rantanen is a better player than Mitch Marner. I'm sorry. Mikko Rantanen has reached better stats than Mitch Marner. He's a better playoff performer and honestly would be more worthy of that kind of money than Mitch Marner. As much as I just went out in defense of Mitch Marner, there is no way the Avs could move on from Mikko Rantanen and then bring in a player like Mitch Marner and pay him $13 million or something like that. And that would be justified. I honestly would not see it at all. I would immediately be saying, that's cool. When are we firing everyone in the front office? Because that is just not smart business. The Colorado Avalanche very much have gone in the direction just last season. This season, if you honestly want to, because the season isn't even over yet. The playoffs are still going on. The Avalanche have gone out and publicly said, both Sakic and Chris McFarlane, that they are looking at not paying three players. They didn't want to pay Kahle McCarr, whose contract is coming up soon and he'll get paid a boatload of money. They didn't want to pay Nathan McKinnon a whole lot of money and then still have to pay Mikko Rantanen and just be a three-player team. There's the reason why we have Martin Netjes making $6 million right now on a very good contract. And even then, when that new contract extension kicks in for Marty Netjes, at most, Netjes is going to get paid $10 million per year. That's at least $3 million, three and a half less than what Marner or Rantanen would have made if he had re-signed in Colorado. Because Rantanen only settled for $12 million. We don't know what he was actually asking for. So it's kind of a hard situation to then not have those $3 million to spread with whatever depth you need, but then be locked up in a Rantanen and a McKinnon and a McCarr. But then you say, no, we're actually going to reverse our decision now and now we're going to sign Mitch Marner, who is a worse version of Mikko Rantanen. It just doesn't make sense. It's not a logical move. I think the article is fun. I think that it's always fun to speculate something like this. Mitch Marner with his friend, Nathan McKinnon, power of friendship, bring in Sidney Crosby, and then everyone gets a car that goes to every single one of the games and then world hunger is eliminated. It's just so much fun, right? But honestly, I don't see that happening at all. The cap situation does not support it. This organization has very much gone in the direction that we are about depth and spreading the wealth of the money rather than spending it on just a very small amount of players. The Marner situation, therefore, does not work. I don't think it would be a good move, even though it would be really fun. But let me know what you guys think, Avs Nation. This has been Avs Digest, your number one source for all of your Avs news. Don't forget to subscribe, and I will see you in the next one.