The Toronto Maple Leafs' Mitchell Marner (16) battles for the puck against the Florida Panthers' Henrik Borgstrom (95) during the third period at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. The Panthers won, 3-1. (David Santiago/Miami Herald/TNS via Getty Images)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are at a contract impasse with Mitch Marner.

Mitch Marner is the homegrown, hometown superstar the Toronto Maple Leafs have been searching for for years.

Last season he just scratched the surface of his potential, putting up 94 points, which tied him for the tenth spot on the all-time Leafs single season points list.

Where will he be playing next year? In Toronto, for sure, and in no small part thanks to Sebastian Aho and the Montreal Canadiens.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner

The story so far: The Leafs and Marner cannot come to an agreement on a new contract because Marner is asking for Auston Matthews money, and the Leafs – correctly – are hesitant to pay that much.

And they should be – as much as we love Marner, he’s no Matthews.

A much better comparison is Sebastian Aho, who recently signed an offer-sheet with the Montreal Canadiens, which was matched by the Hurricanes.

The Aho contract is worth an $8.5 million dollar cap hit.

Aho is a centre, Marner is a winger. They are the same age. Marner had more points (94 to 83) and he had 18 more 5v5 points.

Aho scored more goals, and had better differential stats (including an incredible 57% Corsi). They both kind of suck at defense. (All stats naturalstattrick.com).

The bottom line is that they are both extremely close comparables. Marner scores more, but is worse defensively. Aho scores more goals, but has way worse teammates (Teuvo Teravainen vs John Tavares; not to mention that Matthews helps insulate Marner as well).

I’m not saying that Aho is better – although a lot of people do say that. The point I want to make is that with Aho signing a 5 year deal worth $8.5, Mitch Marner’s supposed ask of Matthews money is preposterous.

There is just no justification that any person could ever make that would explain how Marner is worth $3 million more than Aho.

Aho’s cap-hit is $8.5 and Kucherov’s is $9.5 (on a contract that hasn’t even started yet).

Not sure how Marner’s agent can know that information and still, with a straight face, ask for more. It’s just stupid.

Ask for $10, take $9 and get back to work. At the end of the day, who cares about Auston Matthew and what he makes? It’s ridiculous for Marner to ask for more than Aho or Kucherov.

Now that Aho has signed, the market should be set. Mitch Marner should sign with the Leafs and get this saga over with.