Mitch Marner took the podium on day one of Maple Leafs training camp on Wednesday and made one thing very clear – he wanted nothing to do with answering a slew of questions regarding his contract negotiations.
Marner is entering the final season of his current deal and it’s certainly a huge storyline to follow in Toronto. Even though Marner wasn’t going to address much at the podium, it turns out Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman got Marner to open up about how things could potentially play out.
Friedman sat down with Marner for an interview that will run during the first intermission of the Maple Leafs opening pre-season game on Sunday and while Marner won’t be doing much talking publicly, he’s open to his agent Darren Ferris and Leafs’ GM Brad Treliving negotiating an extension in-season.
“I don’t know if I would say that,” stated Marner. “But I think for my sake, unless it gets really important or (I’m) really needed, I’m going to let my agent and Brad do all the talking and figure stuff out. I’m just going to focus on playing hockey and trying to help this team win games.”
As Friedman pointed out in his recent article, some players are strongly against any contract negotiations once the puck drops on the regular season, but from all accounts, Marner is willing to keep the dialogue moving forward.
After another disappointing Stanley Cup Playoff exit, rightly or wrongly, Marner was made the scapegoat in Toronto. It was in large part to due with his lack of production later in the playoff series, which unfortunately has become a bit of a theme the past few years. Marner is set to make $10.9 million against the cap this season and will surely be looking for a raise on any long-term extension.
Treliving is no stranger to negotiating during the regular season as he’s extended several Maple Leafs, including letting William Nylander get off to a blazing start last year before extending the Swedish winger in January. Waiting out the Nylander talks potentially cost the team at least $1 million annually on his extension.
With Marner’s agent and Treliving set to continue talks, it means a contract extension will likely be agreed upon at some point throughout this season. If not, it could get awfully noisy in Toronto around the trade deadline.
