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Toronto Maple Leafs Should Follow This 1 Simple Rule of All Successful Teams

There is 1 rule in pro sports that all good teams follow. The Toronto Maple Leafs should follow it.

By James Tanner |
Apr 27, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Mitch Marner (16) celebrates scoring a goal against the Boston Bruins during the third period in game four of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY
Apr 27, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Mitch Marner (16) celebrates scoring a goal against the Boston Bruins during the third period in game four of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY / Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

If anyone knows how hard it is to manage a hockey team, it's the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are, historically at least, one of the worst run franchises in all of professional sports.

But their seeming intention to trade Mitch Marner threatens to take the franchise to a new, and heretofore unimagined, all-time low.

However they could avoid this by following the most basic rule in all of sports.

Toronto Maple Leafs Should Follow This 1 Simple Rule of All Successful Teams

It's a pretty simple rule: Don't Trade Future Hall of Fame Players When They Are in Their Primes.

It's a basic adege that all good teams follow.

The Buffalo Sabres, not a good team, traded Jack Eichel to the Golden Knights, who went right straight to the Stanley Cup Finals. They also traded Sam Reinhart. Guess what happened to the team he went to?

The Calgary Flames, also not a good team, traded Matt Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, who went to two straight Stanely Cup Finals.

Tell me, did any of the teams that traded Brent Burns, PK Subban, Taylor Hall or Dougie Hamilton go on to have any success? No they did not.

Outside the NHL, how about those Pittsburgh Pirates just racking up the wins with that Gerrit Cole package? Or how did it work out for the Blue Jays when they traded Roy Halladay?

In the NHL, or any sport, trading away Hall of Fame players always leads to being a crap franchise and languishing in obscurity. Trading FOR Hall of Fame players? Almost a sure path to success.

The Leafs have two doors to go through, and it doesn't take a physic or a genius to figure out which one they should take.

Mitch Marner has 639 points in 576 games. If he plays for another four or five years, which he almost certainly will, he will have over 1000 points and be a GUARANTEED Hall of Fame player.

Marner has a pretty good shot at 1500 points based on the rate he's scored at so far. That would put him in the top 20 all time.

And he likely hasn't even had his best season yet. The Leafs would be trading the type of player that you historically cannot win a trade with. He would be at his lowest possible value, and they'd be dealing from a position of extreme weakness because of his no-movement clause.

Therefore, while it would be stupid to trade him under the best of circumstances, the Leafs are actually in a worst-circumstances position. Trading him would be asinine.

No matter what has happened so far, no team gets better by trading a player this good. The Toronto Maple Leafs need to follow the only rule for running a pro sports team that matters:

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Don't Trade Away Hall of Famers.

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