The Nashville Predators Should Offer Sheet Mitch Marner

With the Toronto Maple Leafs in cap trouble, the Nashville Predators have a perfect opportunity to bring in an elite offensive player in Mitch Marner via an offer sheet.

With a few cap dumps, this move makes sense both logistically and cap wise for the Nashville Predators. Dumping a guy like Kyle Turris or P.K. Subban would give them the $11-12 million that Mitch Marner would likely be looking for and it will be worth it.

The offersheet would require the Preds to give up their next four first round picks, which they still own. These first round picks will not be as valuable as other teams because the Nashville Predators will be competing for championships, which means this makes more sense than it would for other teams.

The real question is: Is Mitch Marner really worth the risk? That answer is yes.

Marner is currently 22 years old, which means he isn’t even at his ceiling yet, which is great news for any team who ends up acquiring his services.

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In his first three seasons in the league, Mitch Marner has already posted 67 goals, 157 assists and 224 points in 241 games. That’s including what seemed like a breakout season for him, where he posted 26 goals, 68 assists to sum up to 94 points.

The restricted free agent is just breaking out and has the potential to be one of the best players in the league, which would help the Nashville Predators championship chase tremendously.

Marner is a guy who can both create his own shot, as well as make plays to set up his teammates, which would help the Nashville Predators, who had a very disappointing offensive year, a lot.

He could either slot in on the Predators first line, allowing the Preds to split up the two best shooters on the team and giving one of them one of the league’s best playmakers.

This lineup flexibility will help the Nashville Predators out tremendously, as they could put Filip Forsberg on a line with Mikael Granlund and a guy like Rocco Grimaldi (or Kyle Turris if he isn’t the guy who gets traded to make this happen), while giving Viktor Arvidsson an elite playmaker to set him up on that first line with Ryan Johansen.

This could maximize the production from the top six, as both lines have elite goal scorers, as well as play makers, to produce a high amount of points.

Marner could also help the Nashville Predators horrid power play by distributing the puck to the team’s top scorers, just like he did for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were a top 10 team in power play production last season.

Keep in mind, Mitch Marner hasn’t even hit his prime yet, he is only 22 and he has already hit 94 points in a season. Marner possibly has 12 more years as an elite player, at the very least, which means he can help the Nashville Predators much more than anyone they can select in the first round in the next four years.

Offer sheeting Marner could be a huge risk for the Nashville Predators, but with the production he has already had, as well as his potential to do more, means that the risk is very much worth it.