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During his appearance on Leafs Morning Take with Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman dropped an interesting nugget regarding Mitch Marner.
“One of the things with Marner is that a lot of people suspect that Vegas will be around it,” Friedman said. “Because Vegas is just smart, they are around any good player. So I got people hypothesizing Shea Theodore and Logan Thompson deals to me, for example.”
Marner getting traded to the Golden Knights would make a ton of sense given that the team always seems to be in on marquee players and unafraid to pull the trigger on blockbuster deals to make it happen. Look no further than their moves to bring in Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, and Tomas Hertl just to name a few: if a notable player is possibly up for grabs, Vegas will try and bring them in by any means necessary.
In terms of where things stand right now with the Marner situation, Friedman mentioned the complexities of pulling off a move of this magnitude given his no-movement clause, his wants, and the desire for both sides to emerge from this as winners. He reiterated that the star forward’s first choice is to stay in Toronto but is aware that his time with the organization could be nearing its end. Friedman also said that Marner’s gut feeling is that this saga could carry over into the 2024-25 season given the challenges that could emerge in convincing him to move on.
All of which is to say that nothing has changed at the time of this filing, a potential trade could happen and we are no closer to a resolution than we were yesterday.
“One of the things with Marner is that a lot of people suspect that Vegas will be around it,” Friedman said. “Because Vegas is just smart, they are around any good player. So I got people hypothesizing Shea Theodore and Logan Thompson deals to me, for example.”
From the Leafs’ perspective, the Golden Knights could have the assets they would want to be more comfortable in making this trade happen. Brad Treliving said last week that they won’t move Marner just for the sake of it and it will only occur if they see a clear upgrade to their roster can be made. Luckily for him, Vegas does have a few pieces that would be intriguing to him in a hypothetical scenario.
The two players that Friedman mentioned in Theodore and Thompson make a ton of sense. Theodore would be a huge boost to the back end that has been in desperate need of a bona fide stud while Thompson posted pretty respectable numbers and could form a formidable tandem with Joseph Woll. Toronto may ask Vegas about certain players to address other needs, including William Karlsson, Nicholas Hague, and Nicolas Roy.
Of course, it would have to work financially both in the short and long term as the Golden Knights are currently tight on cap space going into the offseason — with just over $2.1 million as of now according to PuckPedia — and have seven players on expiring contracts. Vegas will want to try and retain as many of their pending UFAs as they can, most notably Jonathan Marchessault, so the Leafs will have to work out an arrangement that allows them to get the upgrades they seek while also not screwing over the Golden Knights’ cap space. This means there is a good chance a third team would have to get involved to make this work.
The prospect of Marner getting dealt to Sin City could make sense for all parties involved. The Leafs would be able to get the upgrades they want, the Golden Knights bring in another marquee player, and Marner would get to go to a team in a tax-free state that allows him to maximize his earnings.
If the reports of Toronto having a sense of which team the 27-year-old would consider being moved to are accurate, perhaps this nugget from Freidman links the missing puzzle piece. Now let the rampant speculation begin!
You can watch the full segment with Friedman below:
