Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! We are inching closer to the 2024 NHL Draft and the start of Free Agency. One of the prominent players in the NHL heading into the final year of his deal is Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
All eyes will be on the hockey world, the Toronto Maple Leafs, this off-season. Mitch Marner is entering the final year of his deal with the Maple Leafs. While Toronto wants to make changes this off-season, Marner seems content on playing out the final year of his deal. And while Marner controls the narrative, speculation continues as he is the top trade target on many boards. It feels like this is the year the Core Four gets broken up.
Time to Dive into the NHL Rumors surrounding Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto Maple Leafs Have To Play Hardball with Marner
Mitch Marner is entering the final year of his deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He has a full no-trade clause. Auston Matthews and William Nylander already signed extensions with the club. Captain John Tavares is in the final year of his deal, and the Maple Leafs are okay with him walking. That leaves Mitch Marner as the odd man out.
Dave McCarthy stated on the Full Press NHL Podcast that the Maple Leafs must tell Marner the hard truth. If he wants to stay, we, the Toronto Maple Leafs, are not signing you up for a new extension.
Dave McCarthy: “I mean, ultimately, at the end of the day, if John and Mitch both say no thanks, then the answer is no. So I’m glad you put it that way because let’s not be stupid here. It’s not gonna be Matthews or Nylander just based on it’s not going to be Matthews, and you just signed William Nylander to an eight-year deal. So it has to be Marner because you’re at a tipping point now with where he is on his contractual calendar. And if it was the other way around, if Marner had just been signed to a long-term deal, and Nyander was a year away from free agency, I would be saying, well, it’s not gonna be Marner or Matthews. It must be Nylander just because that’s the way it is. Right?
So don’t take it as though I’m picking on Mitch Marner. But if you’re going to change the look of the core that’s who it’s going to be. And so look, I think you go to Mitch and he’s a good player. He deserves a lot of credit for helping get this team back to a position where they show up in September, and they know they’re in the playoffs for fun. And for a lot of years in Toronto that was not the case, but he has not shown himself to be nearly as effective in the playoffs.
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So you have to ask yourself the question. If if your Brad Treliving I mean right now, do we sign him to an extension? And if so, what does that extension look like? And I can tell you from Marner standpoint, it’s not going to be for less than he’s making right now, which is already too much so that presents a problem. So the the answer is no to that. It better be No.
If he says that, he would be willing to take a long-term deal at nine and a half. I’d listened to that, but he’s not going to. Also, if he did, representatives from the Players Association would be showing up at his door in very foul moods. So he’s not going to do that. Then the only other answer is we must look at exploring a trade to try to get some value back, for which is still a very valuable asset.
So you go to him and you say look, Mitch, we thank you for everything that you’ve done here. But there will be no extension. You will walk in free agency. But that will leave your legacy in a very good position in Toronto, a city in which you have grown up in and live and want to come back to when have your name still be viewed positively, which it will be in Toronto if you agree to help us get something back for you and work with us throughout this process. So would you like to do that?
Or would you, as is your right, say no, play out the final year, and walk out the door in free agency, to which point we will let it be known that you refuse to work with us and that won’t do your legacy very good at all. It sounds pretty harsh. But that’s because, like I hate to say it, folks, but that’s business, and everything is not always rainbows and unicorns and pats on the back and good try metals. That’s how it works in business and so you do it this way and really look at it like this. Everybody wins.
Mitch gets to go to a place of his choosing that he wants and gets a likely an extension involved in the deal that is to his liking. And the Leafs get something back for him.”
There is a caveat to this. What if Craig Berube, the new Maple Leafs head coach, says he can work with Marner and make him a better player? What then? That is something Dave McCarthy brought up and hopes the team will address.
McCarthy: “Or we’ll see if Craig Berube if that was part of the interview process for him. Who knows he might have said, what are we doing with Mitch don’t trade him. I want him, and I think I can fix that. I think I can turn him into a guy that we need, and if that’s the case, well, then he better come out and say that because that’ll help shift the narrative in the right direction.
Then, it’ll sort of put it on Mitch to heed the message that it could be possible, so it’ll be quite interesting to see how that plays out. But I guess the long answer would be that I hope that there will be no long-term extension at more money on July 1 because I do not think that would be the prudent course of action right now.”
Until there is an extension or a trade, the Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner will dominate the NHL Rumors moving forward.