Top 4 Teams Emerge as Highest Bidders to Land Mitch Marner from the Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to lose star forward Mitch Marner in free agency, and unsurprisingly, there have been at least 10 teams in the NHL publicly linked to the 100-point forward.

While teams like Los Angeles, Carolina, Vegas and Florida would love to add Marner to their Stanley Cup contending rosters, there's plenty of interest in Marner from teams that are looking to take that jump to contention.

What those teams have an advantage with is their ability to pay him huge money, and now, James Mirtle of The Athletic has revealed the four teams willing to give Marner the biggest pay day this off-season.

According to Mirtle, those teams are Utah ($21 million in cap space), San Jose ($40.9 million), Anaheim ($32 million) and Chicago ($29 million), all of whom could make him one of, if not the highest paid player in the NHL by annual salary.

However, they present as less attractive offers on the ice, although Anaheim with the recent addition of Chris Kreider and their rising roster could be a dark horse in the Western Conference now if they were able to add No. 16.

All this is to say that Marner has a massive decision to make this off-season, as he could take less money, although likely over $11 million still, to sign with a contending team, or he could be looking at offers above Leon Draisaitl ($14 million AAV) to join a team that's not quite ready to contend yet.

From reports, it appears as though Marner is prioritizing a winning situation in free agency, but if he gets upwards of $14 million offered to a young team on the rise, there's no telling what could happen.