Trading Mitch Marner? Remember Tuuka Rask and Russ Courtnall

The two most hated, mocked and unpopular people associated with the Toronto Maple Leafs are Gord Stellick and John Ferguson Jr.

The two first-time GMs who never GM'd again, and never will, don't even have any competition, besides each other, for the title of "Worst GM In Toronto Maple Leafs History." It is cut-and-dry as Auston Matthews being the best player in franchise history.

Despite being nice guys who know a ton about hockey, they never got a second chance because they are the authors of the two biggest blunders in franchise history. (And if you screw up in Toronto that's pretty much it for you in the NHL).

Ask any Toronto Maple Leafs to sum up the last 50 years of failure and if they don't mention Kerry Fraser, they will say one of two things:

"Courtnall for Kordic,"

or

"Rask for Raycroft."

Brad Treliving, who has more to do with the Florida Panthers making the Stanley Cup Final last year and possibly winning it all this year than anyone else on earth, must be keenly aware that history has dealt him a card that can turn the notorious duo of hated ex-GMs into a trio.

Don't. Trade. Mitch. Marner

Marner makes $11 million dollars, can dictate his own terms, and is at his lowest possible value.

Add in the fact that I can pretty much gaurantee you that few, if any, group-think infected mobs have ever gotten an important question right, and the issue starts to become exceedingly clear: Trading Mitch Marer is a really, really stupid idea.

Doing it will haunt the franchise for years, and, frankly, this franchise has enough ghosts.

This is a winger who has scored at a 100 point pace for four straight years, and who has provided elite defense during that time.

A lot of his lack of playoff scoring can be blamed on the coach who used him in a very defensive role and forced him to play very safe hockey. Some of it can also be blamed on the fact that he returned from a high-ankle sprain in half the time this year, while Auston Matthews couldn't shoot the puck in two of the last four playoff series, and this year was sick/injured again.

Some of it is just bad luck. Maybe some of it is bad play, but players at his level tend to learn from their mistakes and improve on them.

None of it is because he "chokes" when the games get hard. That is a very basic and ridiculous take that doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.

A useful comparison to Marner is Nathan MacKinnon. He started his career three seasons before Marner, and in his last three seasons he has won a Stanley Cup (in year nine btw) broke 100 points for the first time, after scoring at that pace for a long time and never doing it.

Finally, this year MacKinnon scored 140 points. All things he did when he was older than Marner is now. Before his ninth year in the league, MacKinnon was seen as someone who was very good, but maybe not at the top of the NHL.

Marner has about 80 points more in four less games than MacKinnon did after eight seasons. Should the Leafs trade Marner right when his closest comparable player started his ascension to the top of the NHL?

Does Brad Treliving want to be immortalized alongside Gord Stellick and John Ferguson JR.?