Sportsnet 590 The FAN: Toronto Maple Leafs pending UFA Mitch Marner is gaining leverage a quarter of the way through the season. Do the Maple Leafs have no choice but to extend him or is there a cut off point?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Sam McKee: “I’ve always been hard on this guy. Like it started with me, I never liked London Knights, the whole deal from the start. Not a fan. But you are going to be a worse hockey team if he does not sign long-term.”
Justin Bourne: “Yes.”
McKee: “There is no question. And sure, he’s had these moments in the playoffs where it’s not gone great. I know, I’ve talked about them.
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But the reality is there and like, sure, you can go in free agency and try to sign these guys. Ask the Bruins how that worked out? Ask how their cap, cap space figured out when you sign (Elias) Lindholm and (Nikita) Zadorov, and it’s like, oh, you’re below 500.”
Bourne: “What I hope doesn’t get lost from our conversation on Monday was the way that I started that conversation, which was the Leafs have messed this up. And that’s a point that I maintain to this day, as he’s a player you need to keep. There aren’t that many of these guys.
And the fact that it’s at this point, and now they’re watching the cap go up, and they’re watching him have success, and, you know, have the leverage at this point to say, he’s going to walk away, kills them.
And so they need to sign him. You’re just not going to get better when he’s gone. And so they’ve messed it up to this point, but they may have to eat it a little bit and say, gonna cost a bit more than we should.”
Nick Kypreos: “No, No We’re not doing this again.”
Bourne: “Do you want to talk about it?”
McKee: “Mitch Marner has the Leafs over a barrel.”
Kypreos: “Are you, are you…”
McKee: “Mitch Marner has the Leafs over a barrel.”
Kypreos: “Are you okay with now with not being a little bit more, but it being a lot more and still signing them?”
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Bourne: “You know, it’s one of those things where it’s like, I also believe that you can’t have guys in the room who aren’t putting the team first or are difficult or repeatedly the person. Like this guy has constantly been a challenge for the leafs and for the fan base.
So there’s definitely a limit for me. Where I’m not just like, now he’s played good in November, you know, we’ve seen that before, …”
Kypreos: “How about you?”
Bourne: “… open the checkbook?”
McKee: “I think I’m kind of, like, are you going to lose Mitch Marner over $500k per year? Like, are you, are you thinking about that $500k or extra million bucks are you thinking about that when he …”
Kypreos: “Say the $500k, takes him, takes him past Matthews. You okay with
that?”
McKee: “Listen, at this point, It’s not…”
Kypreos: “Are you okay with that?”
Bourne: “No, absolutely not.”
McKee: “Probably not. No. But if it’s got, either that or losing them, then I’d probably do it.”
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