NHL Rumors: Four Mitch Marner Trades Made, and the Golden Knights Cap Crunch

Mitch Marner's four trade considerations

Sportsnet's Ryan Dixon: Mitch Marner's four hypothetical trades.

The Columbus Blue Jackets get: RW Mitch Marner
The Toronto Maple Leafs get: 2024 fourth overall pick, C/W Kent Johnson

Seattle Kraken found: RW Mitch Marner
The Toronto Maple Leafs get: C Shane Wright, D Adam Larsson

The Calgary Flames get: RW Mitch Marner, C Fraser Minten, LW Nick Robertson, D Timothy Liljegren
The Toronto Maple Leafs get: G Jacob Markstrom*, D Rasmus Andersson
*The Flames keep 25 percent of Markstrom's remaining salary

The Philadelphia Flyers get: RW Mitch Marner
The Toronto Maple Leafs get: C Scott Laughton, D Mario Ferraro, 2024 second round pick by San Jose
The San Jose Sharks get: D Oliver Bonk

The Vegas Golden Knights are facing another cap crunch

Jesse Granger of the Athletic: Vegas Golden Knights manager Kelly McCrimmon said last week that there could be a turnover this offseason. They are back in the cap crunch again. They have six pending UFAs and some important RFAs to make decisions on.

Pending UFAs include Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, William Carrier, Michael Amadio, Anthony Mantha and Alec Martinez.

Pending RFAs include Pavel Dorofeyev and Kaedan Korczak.

The Golden Knights have $80.1 million committed to 18 players (9 F, 7 D, and 2 G) not including Robin Lehner and his $5 million who will be playing on LTIR as well. They have about $7.6 million in cap space for the three forwards.

GM McCrimmon on Marchessault: “There's definitely a strong willingness on both sides to have really good conversations. That's what we're going to work on.”

Mantha is unlikely to return as he was not really ready to be adopted at the deadline. Stephenson probably won't be back given his price and their ability to fill his spot. Losing the leadership and personality of Martinez will not be easy to replace but it is unlikely that he will return.

The future of Carrier and Amadio may depend on what happens with the contracts of Marchessault and Dorofeyev.

Defenseman Zach Whitecloud has four years left on his $2.75 million contract and could be traded.

Defenseman Shea Theodore has one year left on his $5.2 million contract and they may not be able to pay him this season. Theodore and Noah Hanifin are the same players. If McCrimmon doesn't think he can extend Theodore, he can look to move him. Moving Theodore will create cap space and give them good assets.