It appears Mitch Marner's contract saga with the Toronto Maple Leafs could be the catalyst that finally gets this summer's star-studded group of restricted free agents moving.

Agents of other high-profile RFAs are waiting for Marner to sign first to set the market, a source told The Athletic's Joe Smith.

Marner is one of several young RFAs coming out of entry-level contracts this offseason, along with fellow stars Brayden Point, Mikko Rantanen Brock Boeser, Patrik Laine, and Matthew Tkachuk, among others.

Coming off a 94-point campaign, Marner could be in line to become the highest-paid member of this year's RFA class, but Toronto's salary cap constraints have prolonged the process. That said, the 22-year-old did state he wants to be with the club for training camp in September.

Contract negotiations can drag into the regular season and cost players games, as was the case last year with Leafs winger William Nylander, who signed on the Dec. 1 deadline - minutes before he would have been forced to sit out the entire 2018-19 campaign.

Negotiations that leak into the regular-season schedule also cause signing players' first-year cap hits to be prorated, creating additional financial headaches for teams up against the salary cap.

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The Vegas Golden Knights have granted restricted free-agent forward Nikita Gusev permission to speak with the New Jersey Devils to see if a deal on a contract could be reached, sources told The Athletic's Jesse Granger.

No trade has been reached yet but a deal could be coming soon, Granger added.

More to come.

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The NHL is famous for its parity come playoff time.

Over the last four years, we've seen a team win back-to-back championships, an expansion team make the final, and a pair of clubs win the first titles in franchise history. All bets are off in the springtime, but that doesn't mean some teams aren't better built for success than others.

Looking at four key factors for all 32 organizations (yes, Seattle was included in this exercise), we've ranked each team's chances of winning a Stanley Cup over the next three seasons. In this edition, we focus on the Atlantic Division.

Note: The 32 teams in the exercise were given combined Stanley Cup odds that total 300 percent - 100 percent per year.

Ottawa Senators: 0.8 percent

The Senators will be hard-pressed to get out of the NHL's basement in 2019-20. There's reason for optimism in the future, though, as the team's prospect pipeline is brimming with talent, and Thomas Chabot and Brady Tkachuk are young high-end players already on the roster. However, the likelihood of Ottawa making the postseason over the next three years is low, let alone winning a Stanley Cup.

Detroit Red Wings: 1 percent

The Red Wings are further ahead in their rebuild than the Senators, but in a stacked division, they'll find it very difficult to earn a postseason berth. The future is bright with Steve Yzerman calling the shots as general manager, but there's still lots of roster turnover that needs to occur before the Wings can even be considered a playoff contender.

Montreal Canadiens: 3 percent

Montreal has collected plenty of nice young players both on the roster and coming through the team's system. But the club's two cornerstone players - Carey Price and Shea Weber - aren't getting any younger at 31 and 33 years old, respectively. Time is running out for the Habs to make a serious championship run with that duo leading the way. If Montreal makes the playoffs and Price gets hot, anything could happen, but that's not likely.

Buffalo Sabres: 3 percent

So much is unknown for the Sabres. The club projects to hold over $38 million in cap space next season, but that's only with eight players signed, and luring free agents to western New York is never easy. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who's just 20 years old, is perhaps the best goalie prospect in the world, and there's plenty of upside for Buffalo defensively. But the club faces far too many holes up front. Casey Mittelstadt is the franchise's biggest X-factor. If he can be the player many expect, the Sabres could turn some heads sooner than later.

Florida Panthers: 15 percent

The Panthers arguably improved more than any other team during the offseason, signing goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to fill their biggest need, while also adding defenseman Anton Stralman, and high-energy forward Noel Acciari. On paper, this team is good enough to compete for a Stanley Cup, but the Panthers will need 2014 No. 1 pick Aaron Ekblad to take a stride forward in his development.

Toronto Maple Leafs: 20 percent

Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly might be the NHL's most enviable five-player core. If Marner, a restricted free agent, is re-signed, that quintet will be locked in for the duration of this three-year window, giving the Leafs a legitimate shot at their first Stanley Cup since 1967. The team's defense will improve after the addition of Tyson Barrie, but with Rielly as the only blue-liner signed beyond next season, there's a lot of uncertainty on the back end.

Boston Bruins: 20 percent

Patrice Bergeron (34), David Krejci (33), Brad Marchand (31), and Tuukka Rask (32) are all aging, but with David Pastrnak (23) and Charlie McAvoy (21) leading the next wave, the Bruins will remain a legitimate threat until the team's core starts to decline. Bergeron, Krejci, and Marchand are all coming off career years, so they don't appear to be slowing anytime soon.

Tampa Bay Lightning: 25 percent

If the Lightning can get Brayden Point signed without drastically altering the roster, they'll likely begin next season as Cup favorites. Things won't get easier next summer, though, as Anthony Cirelli, Mathieu Joseph, Mikhail Sergachev, and Erik Cernak will all be due for significant raises. That's a lot to handle for new GM Julien BriseBois, but he already managed to get star goalie Andre Vasilevskiy signed with an eight-year extension. If the front office can keep the main core together while continuing to draft and develop at a high level, the Bolts will be perennial contenders.

Others in this series:

• Central Division (July 30)
• Pacific Division (July 31)
• Metropolitan Division (Aug. 1)

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to an eight-year contract extension, his agent, Dan Milstein, announced Monday.

The deal will carry an average annual value of $9.5 million with $46 million to be paid in bonuses, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

The contract will make Vasilevksiy the third-highest-paid goaltender in the league behind Carey Price ($10.5M) and Sergei Bobrovsky ($10M). Unlike Price and Bobrovsky, who signed their long-term deals at 29 and 30, respectively, Vasilevksiy just turned 25. He was scheduled to become a restricted free agent next summer.

Vasilevskiy claimed the first Vezina Trophy of his career as the league's top goaltender in 2018-19. He went 39-10-4 with a 2.40 goals-against average, a .925 save percentage, and six shutouts.

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Zach Hyman didn't realize he'd torn his ACL until after the Boston Bruins eliminated his Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs this past spring.

The Leafs forward sustained the injury late in Game 4 when he tried to lay a hit on Bruins star Brad Marchand. The team confirmed his injury following the conclusion of the seven-game series, but Hyman said he played through the ailment for the final three-plus contests because it didn't seem as severe as it was ultimately determined to be.

"I didn't know I tore my ACL, nobody knew," Hyman told Sportsnet 590 The FAN on Friday. " ... I thought I hyperextended it. (In Game 4), I tried without a brace and it was fine, but we ended up putting a brace on for (Games) 5, 6, and 7 and it was just pain tolerance ... and I thought I could manage the pain and I thought I could skate pretty well."

The 27-year-old added that he'd planned to undergo an MRI, but didn't want to do so until after the series due to the whirlwind postseason schedule and because he "felt fine" at the time.

Given a recovery timetable of at least six months following his April diagnosis, Hyman is projected to return in late October if his rehab progresses as planned. But he wasn't tipping his hand on how it's been going so far.

"I don't want to give anybody a date and then (have) it not be that date, but I have a date in mind," he said. "It's got to be approved by the medical team first, but it's always good to have a goal to strive for and it motivates you more and whether that's attainable or not we'll see."

Hyman established career highs with 21 goals and 41 points while playing 71 regular-season contests this past season. He tallied one playoff goal on a first-period deflection in Game 4.

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Mark Scheifele insists his Winnipeg Jets don't have chemistry problems.

"People can claim whatever, but I know we have a tight-knit team," the 26-year-old center told NHL.com's Mike Zeisberger on Thursday. "We have great guys in our room. And there's no question in my mind about the character we have in our room, the unity that we have."

Reports of discord within the Jets' dressing room have led to speculation about the team's state of affairs, but Scheifele made it clear he's not going to get caught up in what's being said outside that room.

"That other stuff, that's the stuff as a team you block out," he said. "You know what's going on in your room. Anything extra is a bunch of baloney."

No Jets players or coaches have confirmed issues inside the dressing room, but head coach Paul Maurice hinted at it after Winnipeg was ousted from the first round of the playoffs by the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.

"We’ve got a few ruffled feathers in there that we're going to have to flatten out before we get going," the bench boss told the Winnipeg Free Press' Mike McIntyre at the time.

McIntyre also wrote in April that he and colleague Jason Bell had heard from multiple sources that "things are anything but rosy with this group."

The Jets fell out of first place in the Central Division down the stretch, winning three of their final nine regular-season contests before losing to the Blues in six games.

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