Mitch Marner Trade Grades: Assessing Golden Knights' Sign-and-Trade With Maple Leafs

The Vegas Golden Knights look like winners of the NHL offseason after managing to swing a sign-and-trade for Mitch Marner, who was widely viewed as the crown jewel of the players set to be available this summer.

The deal sees the Golden Knights send Nicolas Roy to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Marner, who will avoid free agency by signing an eight-year, $96 million contract in Vegas. Marner will run the Golden Knights $12 million per year, which is less than some expected him to fetch on the open market.

We'll take a look at the trade from each team's perspective and how they fared from a grading perspective.

Mitch Marner Trade Grades

Golden Knights: A

Not only did the Golden Knights land the best player set to hit the open market, but they did so without getting into a bidding war for his services. Keeping Marner off the open market prevented the price tag from getting out of hand, and enabled Vegas to get his contract on the books while also offloading Roy's $3 million over the next two seasons.

Vegas has never been afraid to lean all the way and pull off a big trade. They did so to acquire both Jack Eichel and Mark Stone in the past, and now they've done it again for Marner, who is coming off a career-best 102-point season.

After coming up short in the postseason this year, Vegas immediately showed its commitment to adding another Stanley Cup title to its resume by landing Marner in the sign-and-trade, and the $12 million cap hit is well within reason for a player of his caliber. The 28-year-old will spend the bulk of his prime with the Golden Knights, and should instantly make Vegas favorites to win the West, or close to it.

Maple Leafs: C+

Getting anything in exchange for Marner is a win for the Maple Leafs, as the star winger was all but guaranteed to leave in free agency without Toronto getting anything in return whatsoever. Now, at least, they'll get a veteran winger in exchange who comes at a low cap hit.

Roy doesn't figure to feature among the Maple Leafs' top six forwards, but he's a solid contributor on the bottom two lines, plays in the middle of the ice, and has scored 30 or more points in each of the last four seasons. He's also capable of making an impact defensively, both on the penalty kill and at even strength.

Still, there were reports that the Maple Leafs had considered trading Marner for Mikko Rantanen, which would have been a far greater return than Roy. That deal was reportedly nixed by Marner, who held a no-movement clause in his contract.

Toronto made the best of a pretty unfortunate situation. While it would've been nice to get a star in exchange, Roy is a solid return for Marner considering it was clear he wasn't going to re-sign with the franchise. They'll still have some work to do when free agency opens up, but if they're able to land some talented players to mitigate the loss of Marner, this trade may end up looking a bit better.