The Toronto Maple Leafs should do everything in their power to execute a sign-and-trade with Mitch Marner.
Let's go backwards for a second. The year is 2016 and Mitch Marner just led the London Knights in scoring en route to a Memorial Cup victory and is set to make his NHL debut, alongside the 2016 No. 1 overall pick, Auston Matthews. William Nylander had played 22 NHL games the year prior, but 2016 will be his first full NHL season as well.
The future of the Leafs had never felt so strong, as the youth of those three talents, mixed with "veterans" of James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak seemed like a fantastic group to build around. Not only that, but the team just acquired Freddie Andersen; a legitimate starting goalie.
Fast-forward to 2025, and the Leafs have not missed the playoffs since. Not only that, but Marner has registerd 741 career points in 657 games, and is coming off his first 100-point season. If you told yourself this in 2016, you'd be pretty happy, right? Unfortuantely that's not the case.
How in the world are we at a point where we're ready to trade Marner and re-tool the roster? The future looked so bright, yet that optimism turned to pessism so quick.
There are so many what-if's with this team, but the thing that has been consistent is that they can't win the "big one." They've lost seven straight Game 7's and their best players can't score in the biggest games, most notably Marner. His game may look spectacular during the regular season, but it unfortunately doesn't translate in the playoffs.
He has 63 playoff points in 70 career games, which looks fine on paper, but realistically it's not good enough, especially since he hasn't scored a goal during a Game 5, 6, or 7 since 2018 (LOL). If you're well over a point-per-game player in the regular season, you need to match that point production in the playoffs, which is just something him and the rest of the group can't do.
Leafs must sign and trade Marner to Vegas, Utah, etc.
I think that Marner can go to another team and win a Stanley Cup immediately, as long as he's not their version of Batman, or even Robin. He's clearly shown that he's a good player in the playoffs, but not an elite talent like Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, who can help carry their team. As much as it's sad to know that Marner needs to go after the future looked so bright, he has an opportunity to give back to this city with a sign-and-trade.
The culture of this team needs to change and it needs to go back to the old Brian Burke quote of “We require, as a team, proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence. That’s how our teams play." Burke definitely built a team that was tough to play against, but he unfortunately never acquired enough skill to score goals.
Brad Treliving has been able to bring back some of Burke's philosophies with Chris Tanev and Brandon Carlo, but unfortunately he's missing another power-forward or two up front who can bang bodies, and also score. Matthew Knies is the team's best example of this, but there is unfortunately too much skill up-front that hasn't done their jobs in the playoffs to justify coming back.
Having Marner, Matthews, Tavares and Nylander is amazing on paper, but if they can't score in the biggest moments, why is there even an argument to keep them?
In another market on a more balanced team, Marner will be an amazing addition and will help them, so the Leafs need to use their leverage that they can offer him an eighth year in his contract and sign him, then trade him to a team for an asset. Whether that asset is William Karlsson in Vegas, or even a third-round pick in Utah, the Leafs need to gain something for Marner, instead of just gaining his cap-space.
The 2025-26 version of the Leafs may look worse during the regular season without Marner, but I promise you if they use their cap-space correctly and bring in players who play "playoff hockey', their team will improve in the most critical moments.