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The Toronto Maple Leafs have made their first signing of the offseason, inking Matt Martin to a four-year, $10 million contract.
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Matt Martin to TOR. Four years. $2.5M AAV.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/status/748962964405882884">July 1, 2016</a>
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I <a href="http://theleafsnation.com/2016/6/29/matt-martin-is-underrated-so-don-t-sign-him">wrote about Martin a few days ago</a>, suggesting that he might be a bit underrated by the analytics community. While he&#8217;s constantly a hit king, and hits tend to be something you don&#8217;t want a player doing that often, Martin also has significantly above the curve shot suppression numbers. Depending on who he plays with (<a href="https://twitter.com/RealKyper/status/748957057181712385">please not Auston Matthews</a>), he might be a cog in a useful forechecking shutdown line.
With that said, I&#8217;m not going to sugar coat this signing and justify it. Martin is a player that might be undervalued by his harshest critics, but his value is also overly inflated by his biggest fans. $2.5 million a year is less than I expected him to go for on the market, and I wouldn&#8217;t be shocked if he took less than other teams were offering, but he probably won&#8217;t contribute that much value to the team on an annual basis.
<center><iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/boMRo0VI0KE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></center>
What&#8217;s worse is the term. Toronto was within reaching distance of having all non-core pieces off the books by the end of next year, which is a modern, efficient model. Martin breaks that, getting four years despite being 27 years old.
Needless to say, I&#8217;m a little hesitant, and you should be too.

<img src="//thenationnetwork.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/27/c7/article_27c7ab9e-4745-4d3e-b014-c5c067fb09f9.jpg" alt="USATSI_9024220" width="600" height="455"> Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY SPORTSThe Toronto Maple Leafs have made their first signing of the offseason, inking Matt Martin to a four-year, $10 million contract.<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Matt Martin to TOR. Four years. $2.5M AAV.— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/status/748962964405882884">July 1, 2016</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</center>I <a href="http://theleafsnation.com/2016/6/29/matt-martin-is-underrated-so-don-t-sign-him">wrote about Martin a few days ago</a>, suggesting that he might be a bit underrated by the analytics community. While he's constantly a hit king, and hits tend to be something you don't want a player doing that often, Martin also has significantly above the curve shot suppression numbers. Depending on who he plays with (<a href="https://twitter.com/RealKyper/status/748957057181712385">please not Auston Matthews</a>), he might be a cog in a useful forechecking shutdown line.With that said, I'm not going to sugar coat this signing and justify it. Martin is a player that might be undervalued by his harshest critics, but his value is also overly inflated by his biggest fans. $2.5 million a year is less than I expected him to go for on the market, and I wouldn't be shocked if he took less than other teams were offering, but he probably won't contribute that much value to the team on an annual basis.<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/boMRo0VI0KE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></center>What's worse is the term. Toronto was within reaching distance of having all non-core pieces off the books by the end of next year, which is a modern, efficient model. Martin breaks that, getting four years despite being 27 years old.Needless to say, I'm a little hesitant, and you should be too.

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