Mitch Marner‘s agent says his client received a couple of offer sheets while he was a restricted free agent but his goal all along was to stay with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Darren Ferris says Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas was aware of the offers although can’t disclose which teams were involved.
“Mitch did not want to entertain them,” Ferris said Monday morning on Sportsnet 650’s Starting Lineup.
“Our goal, always, was to have Mitch play for the Maple Leafs and that’s what he wanted,” Ferris added.
Marner and the Maple Leafs agreed to a new contract on Friday night, a six-year deal with an average annual value of $10.893 million. His contract negotiation was one of the most talked about stories in the NHL off-season with several storylines and information released along the way.
Ferris said 99 per cent of the rumours on social media were fabricated and there was a lot of numbers discussed between himself and Dubas.
One news item released was that Marner’s camp had been in contact with the Zurich Lions of the Swiss League. Ferris said should negotiations have stretched out a long time, his client would have went there to train with the team.
Although Ferris said he can’t comment on the cases of other restricted free agents such as Vancouver’s Brock Boeser or Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk, he said he doesn’t think the current NHL salary cap system works and that teams are handcuffed.
“Teams have to be able to secure their star players and keep them long term,” Ferris said.
The 22-year-old star led Toronto in scoring for a second-straight season last year when he had 94 points, including 26 goals.
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