Trading Mitch Marner is something the Toronto Maple Leafs have to be carful with, especially since their current GM is the one who traded Matthew Tkachuk to Florida.
During his tenure as the Calgary Flames general manager, current Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving was in a delicate situation.
Coming off a career-high 115-point season, free agent Johnny Gaudreau decided to leave the Flames and join the Columbus Blue Jackets. A top player left town for nothing in return.
Not long after, Matthew Tkachuk informed Treliving that he had no intention of signing a long-term deal with the Flames once he became a free agent.
Treliving traded Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for a package that included Jonathan Huberdeau. At the time of the deal, the return for Tkachuk was considered decent, especially when factoring in Treliving's limited leverage.
Regardless of the parameters surrounding the Tkachuk trade, it was a giant failure. The Maple Leafs should take note concerning the Mitch Marner situation.
Tkachuk Trade Should Give Pause to the Toronto Maple Leafs Trading Marner
Since that deal, the Florida Panthers have gone from a middle-of-the-pack team to a top contender. They are about to play in their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final.
Yes, Panthers GM Bill Zito has made other important moves, but the spark for the turnaround was acquiring Tkachuk. He obtained the best player in the trade and the Panthers have reaped the benefits ever since.
The Flames and Treliving thought Huberdeau could help fill the void left by Tkachuk and Gaudreau. On top of that, they prematurely signed the left-winger to a long-term extension with a $10.5 million AAV.
Star players fleeing town most definitely played a part in the hasty extension, but Treliving compounded the problem by putting the Flames in a tenuous situation with their salary cap.
No one could have predicted Huberdeau's perilous drop in production, but the Flames are now severely limited in restructuring their roster. They are a fringe playoff contender, but not bad enough to be near the bottom of the lottery for a top draft pick.
The Leafs Best Option is Keeping Marner
Mark Stone of the Vegas Golden Knights is another example of a trade that took a team to the top. The Ottawa Senators have yet to reach the playoffs with their young core, and the Knights won a Cup with Stone in tow.
Two very recent, clear-cut examples of why the Leafs need to hold on to Marner. Marner is a strong, two-way player like Stone. If the Maple Leafs ever thought of moving on from Marner, last summer was the time to do it.
Now, the Leafs are dealing from a position of weakness. The framework (Marner's no-movement clause, only a year remaining on his deal, and playoff production that doesn't match his regular season numbers) hinders getting an acceptable return.
Trading a top player for less-than-market value did not work for the Flames or Senators. The recipients of those top players reached contender status. Keeping Marner for another year with Auston Matthews and William Nylander is the right course of action, even if he eventually leaves for nothing.
The Toronto Maple Leafs don't need to look hard to see the downside of peddling away a star.