The Toronto Maple Leafs might be trading Mitch Marner to a division rival before Mitch Marner after they first sign him to an eight-year contract. And that rival? It's the Florida Panthers.
According to Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects, the Panthers are going to be trying really hard to acquire Marner's services and that doesn't necessarily mean just being in the running when he is an unrestricted free agent on July 1. They might be trying to negotiate a sign-and-trade with the Maple Leafs.
""There's real smoke that the Florida Panthers could be gearing up to make a run at Marner. Word is that Toronto has opened the door to a sign-and-trade scenario, where they ink Marner to a max-term extension (eight years) and then flip him to recoup some level of value""Cam Robinson, Elite Prospects
Robinson adds that Toronto knows almost for certain that Marner is not going to be staying, and by doing this they can get some assets back, like a draft pick or two.
It would be extremely tough to swallow for almost all of us -- just the fact that the Maple Leafs would gladly hand Marner over to the team that kicked them out of the playoffs, and give him an extra year of contract down there in South Florida. All that to get some mid-round draft pick to say that they got something for Marner and didn't technically just let him waltz out of Toronto.
For Florida, it makes sense to just go ahead and get one of the best free agents to hit the open market since John Tavares did seven years ago. With Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad having their contracts expire and both players potentially going to unrestricted free agency as well, and players like rental Brad Marchand and Tomas Nosek in the same boat; the Panthers have the cap space.
On July 1, the Panthers will have exactly $19 million in cap space with 10 forwards, five defensemen, and Sergei Bobrovsky under contract. That means that with those dollars, they need to sign at least two forwards, one defenseman, and one goaltender. If they have Marner with a cap hit of something like $13 million, it does feel like $6 million is still enough to fill those three or four spots.
The Panthers will just pour their magic dust over whatever league-minimum free agent they pick up and now they will replace a middle-six center who probably won't score over 50 points in a season ever again, with a top-line winger who can score 90 points and be one of the best defensive forwards in the league -- to add to their two other potential Selke Trophy finalists.
We know it didn't work out for Marner with the Maple Leafs and his exit probably helps shift Toronto to a deeper team that can address the depth scoring issue, but seeing the Panthers load up with elite two-way forwards that can destroy opposing defenses while also suffocating the opposition's offense, is just painful.
Let's just hope Brad Treliving has his thinking cap on.