TSN: Pierre LeBrun with Jay Onrait on the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mitch Marner and the Nashville Predators.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Onrait: “I love reading your columns in The Athletic. You shot down the rumors of a potential Mitch Marner to Nashville union in The Athletic on Wednesday.
So I guess my next question is where, what is the situation with Marner right now? And do you think there’ll be any kind of resolution anytime soon?
LeBrun: “Yeah, Jay, yeah, I shot down in the sense that I actually understand why the ideas out there and why it makes sense. I mean, the Predators have made it a priority to upgrade offensively this summer.
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They also have a goalie they hope to extend in Juuse Saros. A star goalie and if they can’t extend him, you know, maybe they trade him. So I understand how a lot of smart people put some, you know, put some stars aligning together here and, and, think that Nashville and Toronto could be a match.
But what I was trying to you know, report is that I’m not saying you can’t ever come to that point where these two teams have that conversation. I’m just telling you, it hasn’t happened at this point.”
Onrait: “Right.”
LeBrun: “The two teams have not talked about Mitch Marner. And, and part of that is that the Leafs we’re busy trying to figure out their coaching situation. So they haven’t moved on yet to that part of the offseason.
But, you know, part of what I wrote about to in that column is that this thing has a lot of layers. I mean, at the end of the day, for example, I have no evidence for making a few phone calls this week that Mitch Marner is camp is preparing a list, and gonna hand over a list to Brad Treliving, the leafs GM, saying these are places we might go.
That’s not what I’m, vibes, I’m getting there from the Marner camp. And it sounds very much like hey, we have a year left on our deal. We’re gonna honor it, and you know, we love playing for the Leafs and it’s, it’s important to note that at this juncture, because Mitch Marner is a full no-move.
So I guess it’s, it’s my, my, my way of saying this still could go a lot of different ways including potentially a minor trade this summer, but it’s going to have to come from the Leafs getting the kind of offer from somewhere else where they feel they have to bring it to Marner’s camp, and not the other way around. If that makes any sense.
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You know, Matthew Tkachuk two years ago, his camp handed a list of five, six teams to Calgary. That’s not the sense I’m getting that, that at this particular juncture Marner’s camp intends to go into, go that route. But again, it’s, if anything, if there’s one takeaway from my column is that it’s early and not a whole lot has happened on the Marner front. So let’s all take a deep breath.”
