Teams are licking their chops at the opportunity to try and steal one of the Toronto Maple Leafs' young star players this summer.
"I can tell you, with certainty, that teams are 100 percent preparing an offer sheet for Mitch Marner," TSN's Darren Dreger reported on Thursday's edition of "Insider Trading."
Despite the rumblings, general manager Kyle Dubas has vehemently denied any concern of losing any of his core players to an offer sheet.
Marner's agent, Darren Ferris, has made it clear their intention is to wait until after the season to begin contract negotiations with the Maple Leafs. Should talks bleed into July 1, the 21-year-old would become a RFA, making him eligible to receive an offer sheet from other teams.
Marner is in the midst of a breakout season in his third NHL campaign, leading the Maple Leafs with 62 points in 49 games - just eight short of setting a career high with 33 games left on the schedule.
Since the 2004-05 NHL lockout, only eight players have signed an offer sheet. The last time it happened was in 2013 when the Calgary Flames signed Ryan O’Reilly to a two-year, $10-million deal, only to have it matched by O'Reilly's team at the time, the Colorado Avalanche.
