The Matt Martin trajectory was predictable three years ago, to the point that some of us expected almost all of this: As a popular pending free agent coming off a $1 million cap hit, he was going to command much more money and term that the Islanders wouldn’t budget on an already handsomely paid fourth line.
He went to a team that paid top dollar — Toronto, $10 million over four years, at an average of $2.5 million per year — that would regret or want out of that cap hit by the end of the deal.