Toronto Maple Leafs: Why You Don’t Trade Your Best Players
The Toronto Maple Leafs 100-Point Player
Out of the big names, Marner takes the brunt of the criticism more than any other as there are two things that seems to stir up things with fans about the Toronto native.
The first being his attitude displayed through the media that makes him seem like not the most caring player.
Some players are very guarded, and in this case, Marner appears more defensive with the media which I believe you can take as not caring, however, I believe it is just someone who is not good in front of the media.
If you watch how he is with his teammates and his emotions through the game, I see a very confident, if not cocky player that wants to win and just has not figured out the next level he need to get to.
Each season, Marner seems to mature a little bit more and this is one of the last steps he needs to take.
The second part of Marner’s game that tends to get fans frustrated is what I call his Globetrotter style to hockey. Most times, it appears that Marner would rather make a highlight reel play and fail, than make a hard-nosed grinder play and succeed.
This is something that will have to change in his game and throughout the year and playoffs it seemed to have improved from years past.
Over the past five seasons, the former Memorial Cup MVP has collected 424 points in 348 games which averages out to 100-points over an 82-game season.
There are only a handful of players that can average those types of numbers over five consecutive seasons and had COVID not hit, Marner would be getting close to kicking down franchise records.
He is a game breaking type of player that don’t come around often and when you never win a trade when you make it. If he isn’t traded, there is a likely scenario where he finishes next season sixth in all-time in Toronto Mape Leafs points behind just George Armstrong, Borje Salming, Dave Keon, Darryl Sittler and Mats Sundin.
Hart Trophy Caliber Player
The biggest conundrum is that of Auston Matthews, who is easily the greatest scorer in franchise history.
The Arizona product has scored 34+ goals in every season despite not playing a full year since his rookie campaign.
Matthews has 299 goals in just 481 career games which has led to two Rocket Richard Trophies along with already becoming the fifth leading scorer in franchise history.
Whatever Matthews asks for, you have to give him, the question is how much is he going to want.
For the 2022 Hart Trophy winner, no player has scored at his rate since he joined the league, but how much can he ask for.
Going into the 2023-24 season, Nathan MacKinnon has the highest cap hit of $12.6 Million which slightly surpasses soon to be three-time Hart Trophy winning Connor McDavid.
Matthews does not have justification in asking for more than these two players, however if he hit the open market multiple teams would be willing to go above and beyond McDavid and MacKinnon.
The only way you trade Matthews is if he tells you he won’t be re-signing and at which point the most important trade in franchise history needs to be made.
The Captain
The only player from the Core Four that should be traded is captain John Tavares and the problem is, he is likely not willing to be moved as he has a full No Movement Clause.
If in some miraculous way Tavares does waive his NMC, there isn’t a team in the NHL that would want to take on Tavares’s $11 Million.
GM Kyle Dubas landed Tavares as the prize free agent in the summer of 2018 and the Toronto native even took a hometown discount to come to his childhood team.
Reports surfaced that Tavares turned down a deal from the San Jose Sharks that would have paid him $12.5 Million per season on the same seven-year deal.
Through five seasons, he has averaged just over 35-goals per 82-game seasons, which includes recording 47 goals in his first year of his deal and he has been just under a point per game throughout his tenure.
Statistically speaking, Tavares has put up great numbers, but it is obvious now that his foot speed has drastically seen a drop off from what was already the weakest part of the game.
While he did record four goals in the playoff, he scored in just two of 11 playoff games.
This upcoming season, while the contract carries a huge cap hit, it does not become a problem until the 2024-25 season and for just one year. With both Nylander and Matthews new contracts (if signed) not taking place until the final year of Tavares’ contract .
Nobody is Moving
There is not a trade that you make where you move any of Marner, Matthews or Nylander that you win and at minimum you go watch them become better players somewhere else and at worst you watch them lift multiple Stanley Cups.
Next. The Leafs Had a Very Successful Season. dark
At the same time there is not a team that takes on the Tavares contract, so your best strategy going forward is that you stick with the same four players and think of it as the Big Three and in that one season in 2024-25 you do what you can to get through the year.