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In the ongoing saga of Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs, we get a little nugget from TSN’s Darren Dreger, who indicated on 1050’s First Up morning show that he thinks that GM Brad Treliving would rather extend the All-Star winger than trade, but everything said was from the point of view of where things stand today, and not where things may get to over the next two weeks.
"I think Treliving would rather extend than trade" @DarrenDreger joined us this morning on #FirstUp and dropped a bombshell on the future of Mitch Marner! 👀
If we dissect this report, we can look at it in a couple of different ways.
1) Teams interested in Marner have to think that Treliving has an interest in bringing him back or at least be open to keeping him. The Leafs have undoubtedly received feelers from other clubs, but this report likely means that the offers they are getting is not up to what they are looking for in return.
If clubs perceive Treliving is desperate, that he is painted into a corner, and has no options other than to trade Marner, they will continue to make lowball offers to the Leafs for a player they think they don’t want.
2) If you take this at face value and the Leafs are willing to make an offer of an extension to Marner, it likely will not at a value that he is expecting. Many believe that like in 2019, agent Darren Ferris will be looking for a deal as close to the contract that Auston Matthews signed for ($13.25 million AAV) or at the absolute least, more than William Nylander’s $11.5 million AAV. If Toronto offers something competitive but less than that, it will be rejected by his camp and at that time, it is possible that the Leafs will ask the Marner camp to provide them a list of teams he would be amenable to being traded to.
If they continue with the “we will just play out the year” mantra that we heard last week coming out of the Scouting Combine, then Marner will face a year of constant scrutiny, possibly a season where he does not get the time of ice time and role he has had in years past, and a seven-year free-agent contract instead of an eight-year he could get in a sign-and-trade deal.
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