4 Players the Toronto Maple Leafs Could Trade Mitch Marner For
Just a few days on from the Toronto Maple Leafs crashing out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in spectacular fashion, and the alarm bells won’t stop ringing. Any fans that were inconsolable after the game have joined the legions baying for blood.
This is undeniably the most painful playoff exit in recent memory, possibly even in Toronto Maple Leafs history, due in large part to how this team dominated the North in the regular season.
Despite the cool, calm and reasoned responses of Brendan Shanahan, Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe in their end of season press conferences, a large portion of fans still want a blockbuster trade to change this team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs core four of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander and Mitch Marner has understandably faced criticism for tying up so much cap space and still failing to advance through a series. Most of that ire has been directed towards winger, and $10.9 million man, Mitch Marner.
Marner made a few costly errors (six of his seven post season penalties have been delay of game penalties) but more than that it was just another series where he was invisible. Marner is not alone however. Barring William Nylander, Jason Spezza, Jack Campbell and possibly Alex Kerfoot or TJ Brodie, the whole team disappeared.
Realistically, if the Leafs were to trade one of the four it will not be Matthews or Tavares. That leaves Nylander or Marner, and sine he has one of the best contracts in the NHL, Nylander isn’t going anywhere.
Moving Mitch Marner might be what the fans want, but it isn’t so simple. The animosity is at its highest right now, but he is still a perennial Art Ross Trophy candidate, consistently around a 90 point-per-season pace. Marner is an elite talent and has been one of the best regular season performers since he joined the league.
Fans may want to skip to the post season next year but to get to the playoffs you need to perform in the regular season. Subtracting a 90 point player is significant, especially as the likes of Boston and both Florida teams will return to the division.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs were to try and move Marner every NHL GM would be interested, even with his almost $11 million cap hit. He has the type of skill that is incredibly difficult to come by.
After an exit like this the Leafs must do their due diligence and sound out what the market for Marner looks like, even if they wont pursue a deal. Here are a few players of different styles they could look to target as part of a blockbuster deal.
A Tom Wilson Homecoming
If the Maple Leafs want to keep a home town flavour to their team there is no better player than Tom Wilson. A North Toronto boy born and raised, he still has a home here, he went to high-school here and his family is still in Toronto.
Wilson is also the perfect blend of brutally physical with scoring hands that Toronto lacks; when Dubas went out to get grit and physicality up front, he got Wayne Simmonds who no longer has the same scoring touch.
Wilson has won a cup with the Capitals and with Alexander Ovechkin now 35, Washington’s window is closing whereas Toronto is smack in the middle of theirs.
Playing into Toronto’s favour is Washington’s aging team with TJ Oshie, 34, and Carl Hagelin, 32, both declining. This season Marner scored 14 more points that the Caps top point getter; last season, in just 59 games Marner (67 pts) tied with Ovechkin in 9 fewer games and outscored both Oshie (49) and Hagelin (25).
However, Washington has no cap space and everything points towards Ovechkin signing for a few more years. Washington needs better and younger point production as they can’t rely on No. 8 for much longer but even with a massive hometown discount for No. 8, adding a $10.9 million piece is a hard deal.
Plus Washington would loathe to lose a player like Wilson, whose contract runs until 2024 anyway.
Reunite two American teammates
Calgary Flame Matthew Tkachuk has a thorny history with the Toronto Maple Leafs but all animosity would be forgotten if Toronto and Calgary could work out a deal with Marner and Tkachuk.
Tkachuk brings the same kind of skill set as Wilson, but is a far superior player. The Leafs don’t really have a power-forward on this level, but almost nobody does.
The Leafs lose out in a big way on scoring but Tkachuk is no slouch and at just 23 and a $7 million cap hit that expires in 2022 Calgary could be looking at a player that asks for money in the region of Marner anyway.
The Flames need more point production and Toronto could use a little more grit that can comfortably play top line minutes. Calgary only has around $900,000 in cap space making it every so slightly more feasible but it’s unlikely Darryl Sutter will want to trade away a player in the mold of Tkachuk.
Create the Most Devastating Centre Combo in the League
Jack Eichel’s trade value will never be lower. The No. 2 overall pick in 2016 has demonstrated he wants out of Buffalo plus his injury looks to be serious. Trading for the American is a risk which could be a massive miss or a league altering move.
Even with his injury Eichel would demand a king’s ransom from Buffalo with at least a quality current NHLer, a few top to elite prospects and a first. If Mitch Marner was included it wouldn’t necessarily play out that way because Marner is himself elite but this is still a multi-piece deal.
This is a different kind of player to Wilson and Tkachuk, Eichel is big but not as overtly physical as the other two. Eichel and Matthews could each play 20 minutes a night with Tavares moving to the wing.
However Eichel’s $10 million cap hit means the Leafs are just unplugging one contract and imputing practically the same. The Leafs get a better player in exchange for taking on the injury risk.
Alongside the style of Eichel you also have players like Jonathan Huberdeau at a mere $5.9 million through to 2023 who brings a big body with less physicality but more scoring that other candidates.
Toronto Spends to Make Their D-core Elite
While Dubas invested in the defense last off season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are still not elite on the backend.
TJ Brodie was an excellent addition while Zach Bogosian played above what was expected of him but the Leafs are likely to lose Travis Dermott in the expansion draft. Using Mitch Marner to try and steal a player like Aaron Ekblad out of Florida could be a move to make.
In his post season press conference Kyle Dubas pointed to Pittsburgh having the same kind of money focused on just four players on their 2009 cup run, but with some of the cap devoted to defense. Subtracting a forward for a hard nosed but skilled d-man like Ekblad could change the Leafs come playoff time – and that is exactly what the fans want, post season improvement.
Auston Matthews is good enough to hold a line by himself, and the $3 million you save on Ekblad can go towards a serviceable winger to play with him or contribute to Zach Hyman.
Trust the Process
That is not what any Leafs fans want to hear, but Marner is one of the premier talents in the NHL, you don’t go trading those kinds of players if you can avoid it. Even if it didn’t click in the playoffs the regular season Toronto Maple Leafs were a force to be reckoned with.
Brendan Shanahan made the point while facing the media that if you look at history, a number of Hall of Fame players, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup, were presented with this early career failures.
Matthews and Marner play extremely well together and if a few shots were an inch different here and a few centimetres there, the Leafs would have won the series in 5 or 6. Overtime hockey is a game of the smallest of margins, and the bounces went the Habs way.
Next. A Decade of Playoff Failures. dark
Don’t go blowing up one of the most talented cores in the league because they ran into a potential Hall of Fame goalie playing the best he has in years.