The Toronto Maple Leafs Cannot Cave to Mitch Marner

The Toronto Maple Leafs are playing a dangerous game here.

The Mitch Marner saga will never end. That is, until either of the two sides finally opt to play ball and succumb to the reality of the situation. That might be an unlikely outcome, however. At the moment, one side is living in reality, and the other is not.

Can you guess which one is which? I’ll spell it out for you: Mitch Marner is not worth as much as he is asking for. Point blank. He just isn’t.

In a league that values both centres and goal-scoring above all else, Marner’s game features neither of those things and yet the 22-year-old wants to be paid like someone with one that does.

See the disconnect here? Caving to the demands of a player who has both feet planted firmly in the clouds is a decision that can potentially wreak havoc on the cap situation of a team with legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations. One player cannot be allowed to throw that all away.

But the Leafs have taken things this far. If they were going to roll over, one would think that they probably would have done it by now, right? Well…

I think it’s safe to say now that Marner will not be getting an eight-year deal. Which, frankly, is perfectly fine. There are other factors at play here, most of which come into effect a little way down the line. For instance, locking yourself in for eight years right before a new television deal is negotiated – one that could inject mountains of cash into the league, mind you –  is unwise.

That being said, if Johnston’s report is true, and the Maple Leafs are gradually raising their price point to meet Marner’s demands after all this time, a three-to-four-year deal at an AAV in the double-digit range would be disastrous. It cannot happen. And it would have made the past four months of posturing meaningless.

The concession to paying Marner a higher annual number is that you increase the control you have over him. It’s the classic, “Oh, you want more money? Well, we want more term” tactic. An agreement of three or four years is more or less a bridge deal. And the stipulation on a bridge deal, by and large, is that it is supposed to “bridge” the player’s value from his ELC wage to his eventual big-money payday. So, handing Marner a $10 million-per-year bridge not only defeats the entire purpose of the deal-type, but it also necessitates that Marner’s next salary in either 2022 or 2023 will be astronomically higher. That $10 million would now be the base for his eventual raise.

Do you see what I’m getting at here? Caving to the ludicrous demands of a player who is very transparently being controlled by an overbearing father and posturing agent just to earn the outcome of a miniscule three years of control?

That sets a dangerous precedent both within the Maple Leafs themselves and league-wide.

The Maple Leafs have taken Marner to the ropes for this long. Throwing that all away now would be a disaster.