Mitch Marner’s projected new contract leaked and has Maple Leafs freaking out!

We all knew it would create a domino effet. On Wednesday, Auston Matthews signed a four-year, $53 million extension that ties him to the team that selected him first overall at the 2016 NHL draft through the 2027-28 season. The contract carries an AAV of $13.25 million, which will make Matthews the league’s highest-paid player beginning in 2024-25, surpassing Colorado Avalanche top forward Nathan MacKinnon’s $12.6 AAV.

While William Nylander’s future still needs to be figured out in Toronto, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman tackled the projected contract extension for another of Matthews’ teammate, Mitch Marner, who the insider believes “was the closest one to Matthews.”

Friedman is putting Marner’s projected new AAV way up there, which will get the Maple Leafs and their fanbase quite nervous. This is how he explained it on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast with Jeff Marek:

“What is Marner’s next number? Because he was the closest one to Matthews. When Matthews signed for 11.634 AAV all the sudden Marner became close to an $11M player, so now Matthews’ number is 13.25, what’s Marner’s number? Is it 13.249999?”

Taking to Twitter, fans were stunned with Friedman’s projection, one even calling the contract hilarious.

Most fans were already fed up with the comparaisons and projections, since they just want through it all summer long with Matthews, and still expect to hear that type of chatter when it comes to Nylander.

But Marner is in the mix, and the highest bid is now starting at $13.249999 M.

Recommended articles:

• Wild Mitch Marner wedding video has gone viral
• Connor McDavid lands with Maple Leafs in blockbuster trade proposal
• Mitch Marner projected to win major NHL award
• Toronto's Mitch Marner has a message for the “haters”
• Mitch Marner shares “snotty” comment on Toronto's additions