The Toronto Maple Leafs fans have desifnated Mitch Marner as their official off-season scapegoat.
Not all Toronto Maple Leafs fans, mind you. Just the ones who have been brainwashed by social media into a group-think mob-mentality that leads to emotional arguments that are completely devoid of common sense.
And even media personalities are not immune, as I heard perhaps the single most ridiculous take a person has ever been paid to make when a popular Leafs media figure suggested that change for the sake of change was alright, even if the Leafs lost the trade.
The laughable suggestion that promted this comment was Marner for Martin Necas (AKA Marty Nachos) , which would be like trading William Nylander for Nick Ritchie (famous Nick Kypreos suggestion).
Considering that every player who has ever scored at Marner's rate before their age 27 season is in the hall of fame, and considering that he plays better defense than all of his winger-peers who score at the rate he does (Pastrnak, Rantanen, Kucherov, Draisaitl, Kaprizov) that's just a preposterous take.
But they are becoming more common and more mainstream, even though the idea is terrible.
I mean, really, you can look at a whole bunch of reasons every single year why the Leafs lose, but mostly it's just random and making emotional decisions because you have bad luck is the entire reason that there was an analytics revolution in the first place.
3 Months of Mitch Marner Trade Speculation Is Enough - Just Sign Him Already
The Leafs will lose any Marner trade because Marner has a no-trade clause, an expiring contract and can only go to teams who can committ to paying one of the highest contracts in the NHL, so the Leafs would be trading from a position of weakness.
Not only would it be a position of weakness, but they would be doing something that no team has ever done: trade a hall of famer player in their prime and win the trade.
Recently Jack Eichel was traded to Las Vegas, they won the Cup.
Matt Tkachuk was traded to Florida, they won the Cup.
No other similar players to Marner have been traded recently, and there are few, if any, examples in NHL history of a team winning a trade when they traded a Marner-Level player.
The Toronto Maple Leafs would be insane to trade Marner because it would make them worse. Re-signing Mitch Marner is the only option the Leafs have, and you know what?
They should not care one iota if it's a popular move or not. If William Nylander can win over the absolute worst part of the fanbase, Mitch Marner can easily redeem himself.
In fact, this entire situation could be used in a study for how the internet can make otherwise smart people believe silly things. Marner, who is one of the point-per-game leaders in the playoffs among forwards of his generation, who routinely posts incredible 56% Expected Goals ratings in the playoffs while suppressiong goals like Pavel Datsyuk is actually quite awesome in the playoffs.
Its not really his fault that Auston Matthews has been unhealthy in three of the last four playoff seasons, or if the fans don't give him credit for playing this year on one leg after returning from a high-ankle sprain in half the time.
Ironically, if MItch Marner didn't force himself back to action a month early he wouldn't have been blamed for the loss to Boston and would still be a super-popular franchise pillar. In fact, it's werid anyone blames Marner at all considering the Leafs barely diegned to participate in the Trade Deadline and started a goalie who was on waivers in January.
The bottom line is this: trading Mitch Marner was a dumb idea in May, and it's only gotten worse.