According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Toronto Maple Leafs will have to offer James van Riemsdyk a 6 year contract worth 36 million to successfully extend him.On Tuesday morning, Dreger joined TSN Toronto 1050’s Landsberg in the Morning and shared that he believed that the market value for van Riemsdyk would be a 6 year contract at 36 million. If the Toronto Maple Leafs choose not to re-sign van Riemsdyk, he’ll be a UFA on July 1st.JVR’s Value To The LeafsIt’s no secret what van Riemsdyk has meant for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season. Currently, van Riemsdyk is tied with Auston Matthews as the Toronto Maple Leafs top goal scorer with 19 goals on the year. Van Riemsdyk has also been extremely dominant on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ power-play as he has seven power-play goals so far this season. He’ll surely be missed after Lou Lamoriello and Brendan Shanahan fail to retain him.Can The Leafs Afford JVR?Yes van Riemsdyk will be missed, but can the Toronto Maple Leafs afford to offer him a 6 year contract worth 36 million dollars. Just remember, Lamoriello has to re-sign William Nylander this offseason. Next year, he’ll have to re-sign Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner as their contracts will expire on July 1, 2020.Re-signing The Young StarsSo, let’s do the math to see if it’s doable.My guess is that Nylander will probably get a 5 year, 9 million dollar contract from Lamoriello. In terms of Soshnikov and Gauthier, they’ll probably get two-way contacts for two years each.Now, let’s look at Marner and Matthews. Next season as long as Nathan Horton doesn’t plan on making a comeback, the Leafs will have roughly 32 million dollars to spend. That should be plenty enough to retain both Marner and Matthews.Matthews could command a six year contract worth 11 million and Marner could command a five year contract worth 7 million.That would leave the Maple Leafs with 14 million dollars in cap space, which certainly would be enough to keep van Riemsdyk in Toronto.How To Convince JVR To Stay For Less?In the latest Editor in Leaf roundtable, I pitched that the Toronto Maple Leafs should look to make a trade at the deadline with the Carolina Hurricanes for defenseman, Trevor van Riemsdyk. Trevor, James’ younger brother, has had a great season so far with the Hurricanes and is one of the league leaders in corsi-for percentage with 55%.The Hurricanes are currently seventh in the Metropolitan Division and most likely will be sellers at the deadline. My assumption is that Ron Francis, the general manager of the Hurricanes will be looking to move several assets at the deadline and stockpile draft picks and prospects. So, Francis should be very much open to dealing Trevor van Riemsdyk.One of our Editor in Leaf commenters, JT mentioned that if Lamoriello is able to grab Trevor at the deadline then James might be willing to take a discount on his contract extension.I completely agree with JT and it makes complete sense for two reasons.One, the Maple Leafs’ offense would be awful with James van Riemsdyk. Leaf fans would miss James van Riemsdyk’s scoring ability. He’s exceptional 5v5 and on the power-play. He’d be a big loss for Leaf Nation.Two, the Maple Leafs’ defense has looked very sluggish as of late and needs a resurgence. If the Leafs trade for Trevor van Riemsdyk, Lamoriello will have successfully added a strong defenseman for the Leafs’ 5v5 and penalty-kill. Plus, the Leafs will need another vigorous penalty-kill specialist as long as Mike Babcock plans on keeping Roman Polak in Toronto.