The idea that the Toronto Maple Leafs should trade Mitch Marner is really, really dumb.
Why would the Toronto Maple Leafs trade the second-best player to play for the franchise in the last 50 years?
Why is this even a conversation that keeps coming up?
Are we all just really bored?
The Toronto Maple Leafs Are Not Trading Mitch Marner
Marner has four seasons in a row in which he’s flirted with 100 points (or a hundred point pace, as the case may be) and he’s also become one of the most well-rounded two-way players in the world.
He is an elite defender and penalty killer who is nominated for the Selke Award this year.
He is also only 26 years old, and just coming into his prime.
Why would the team trade him just because they failed to win with him in the playoffs so far? Other than Crosby and Kane, almost every elite player in the league had the same or less success than Mitch Marner did in his first seven years.
McDavid, Draisaitl, Ovechkin, Stamkos, O’Reilly, Bergeron – it all took them between eight and twelve years to become winners.
In professional sports, the main factor in winning is patience. This is because at the pro level, everyone is good, and this makes things like officiating, injuries, goalies and other types of luck into major factors in what happens.
The BEST team rarely wins (notice how Boston did this spring). The winner tends to be the healthiest among a group of best teams.
As frustrating as it is that the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won anything with Marner and Matthews, their best chance for winning eventually is to stick with the two elite superstars.
Leafs fans know how rare it is to get players like this outside Pittsburgh and Edmonton.
Sure, when you’ve lost seven in a row, it makes sense to fantasize about change, but that’s the wrong thing to do. In the NHL, no team has ever traded a player like Mitch Marner in the prime of his career and won the trade.
It has literally never happened, and there is no reason to think the Toronto Maple Leafs will be the first ones to pull it off.
Unless the Leafs were to get Connor Bedard, Connor McDavid or Cale Makar in exchange for Mitch Marner, trading him would be an automatic loss.
I see a lot of half-assed Marner for an OK player and cap space that make me want to scream. Or puke. Or scream and puke.
Marner is an awesome player and a pleasure to watch. He is absolutely, 100%, untouchable. Trading him would be foolish, short-sighted and a major overreaction to running into a hot goalie.
The correct course of action is to continue to build around Matthews and Marner and hope that it works out. If it doesn’t it doesn’t. Winning isn’t guaranteed and is very random. Enjoy the journey, and don’t obsess unhealthily over the destination.
Winning would be nice, but at least it’s fun to watch and cheer for a class guy like Marner who is among the best whose ever lived, rather than two average guys who each make half his salary.
Remember, in the NHL it is always better to have 1 x $11 million dollar player and a rookie, than 2 x $6 million dollar players.