Toronto Maple Leafs Could Easily Sell Summer as Success With 2 Internal Moves
The Toronto Maple Leafs shouldn't be so concerned with trades, they have internal moves they can make to improve.
The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't had a bad summer, if you squint.
If, however, you consider that we are in what is Auston Matthew's extremely limited prime, then the team's summer additions all seem like high-risk/medium-reward moves, and the Toronto Maple Leafs summer looks quite bad.
Marner Situation? Pending.
Blue-Line? Check.....but with several caveats.
Team improved? They are whatever Chris Tanev Minus Tyler Bertuzzi gets you. So, I would assume they are slightly better in games where Tanev actually plays, which hopefully, is all of them.
But, with two internal moves, the Leafs can completely change this narrative.
Toronto Maple Leafs Could Easily Sell Summer as Success With 2 Internal Moves
First, the Mitch Marner situation.
This can only be resolved by re-signing him. If Marner wants a mega-contract, make this one short term and ask him to earn it.
Or, tell the fans you believe in him with an eight-year extension that makes clear you don't care about the noise - you recognize that Mitch Marner is a special player and the Leafs are happy to have him. Then tell Mitch it's up to him to outplay the noise.
What the Leafs can't do is allow this to fester for any more time. At the very least they should announce publicly they have no intention of trading him and that contract talks are ongoing.
A 1B addition to this move is to announce that Marner is going to be playing centre from now on. This all but eliminates the Leafs need to trade for a forward, and makes their lineup way deeper. Honestly, it's a no-brainer.
Now, as to the second move, it's much easier.
Call Nick Robertson's agent and tell him that you will guarantee him a long look for a top-six role with the new coach who has no preconceived notions about him.
Then sign him to a one-year extension and show him you're serious. Announce an intention to play him with Mitch Marner.
That's it, really. The Leafs also need to get Kampf, Jarnkrok and Reaves off the roster, but there is no rush to do that. The rush is to stabilize the team and put a good spin on the summer moves, which is not happening without resolving both the Marner and Robertson situations to satisfaction.
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Having a Matthews-Marner-Tavares down the middle will make the Leafs into a much better team than they are today, and they don't even need to make a roster move to pull it off.