Trusted Insider clears the air about the Leafs/Sandin negotiations, reveals how far apart the two sides actually are
It's been mostly quiet on the Rasmus Sandin front over the past few weeks as both sides continue their contract negotiation standoff. With training camp opening up this week, it's possible that a deal gets done in time for Sandin to take to the ice with the rest of his teammates, much like the way Mitch Marner decided to do during his negotiation in 2019. However, given what we know about Sandin's agent, Lewis Gross, who also represents William Nylander, a holdout into the season seems more likely.
With the season growing ever closer, the NHL Insiders are all getting back to work and doing their due diligence, checking in on the various situations around the league to provide updates. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman touched on the Sandin situation on Monday.
-Friedman on Sandin during his 32 Thoughts podcast
Friedman also mentioned that while the chatter has been about the Sandin camp using the Adam Boqvist deal as his comparable, the truth is that Sandin's camp is using Jake Bean as his main comparable. Bean's 3-year, $6.9M deal is actually a total of $900K cheaper than Boqvist's 3-year, $7.8M deal.
Surprisingly, even though though the gap between Timothy Liljegren's $1.4M AAV and Jake Bean's $2.3M AAV is smaller than the gap between Liljegren's $1.4M AAV and Boqvist's $2.6M AAV, it's still too large of a gap for the Leafs to budge on their offer.
If the Leafs and Sandin are $900K apart in these negotiations, the logical middle ground is a 2-year deal worth $1.85M per season. The question is, is Sandin worth $450K more per season than Liljegren is? If the answer is no, then we could be in for another lengthy holdout unless Sandin is willing to suck it up, bet on himself and take the bridge deal.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 19 | 657 ANSWERS Trusted Insider clears the air about the Leafs/Sandin negotiations, reveals how far apart the two sides actually are Is $2.3M per season a fair value for Rasmus Sandin? | ||
| He doesn't deserve a penny more than Liljegren | 455 | 69.3 % |
| $1.85M-$2M is a fair middle ground | 145 | 22.1 % |
| $2.3M is fair | 44 | 6.7 % |
| He deserves more | 13 | 2 % |
| List of polls | ||
