The Mitch Marner saga continues to trug along with no clear tell of when and how this will all conclude.
With the opening day of free agency now in the rearview mirror, teams have little left to do before training camp commences in September. This means the chances of this continuing into next season increase with each passing day without a resolution.
One team that many suspected would have made sense as trade partners for Mitch Marner were the Predators as they had a goalie potentially available in Juuse Saros, the kind of pieces Toronto would be interested in acquiring, and the type of city Marner may be open to waiving his NMC for.
A deal has yet to materialize and the prospect of one is now highly unlikely as Nashville was not only able to get Saros re-signed, but they also made a big splash in free agency by signing Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei. Yet there was a chance that it could have materialized just before Canada Day as the Toronto Star’s Nick Kypreos reported that Predators centre Ryan O’Reilly made a push to Nashville’s front office to trade for Marner.
“Prior to the Predators spending a whack of dough on free agents Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, ex-Leaf Ryan O’Reilly did his very best to convince GM Barry Trotz to make a push and trade for Mitch Marner,” he said.
We don’t know how close a trade came to becoming a reality and what the Predators would have actually offered the Leafs had that been the case, but the fact that at least one member of the team was on board with acquiring Marner is intriguing nonetheless. Especially given that it is O’Reilly who made the push to Nashville’s upper management given how his tenure with the Leafs ended last summer.
After being acquired around the trade deadline in a blockbuster deal with the Blues, O’Reilly made an immediate impact on the middle six with a strong two-way game that was sorely lacking before his arrival. Whether he was manning the third line or paired up with Marner and John Tavares on the second, his presence was a key factor in why the Leafs were finally able to get past the first round in 2023.
When their season concluded, he referred to the Leafs in the past tense which left many wondering if he would be back or leaving. We of course know it ended up being the latter, with one of the reasons being that he wanted to get out of the Toronto spotlight and wished to be in a quieter hockey market such as Nashville. It worked out alright for him as he went on to have one of his best offensive seasons to date and helped guide the Predators to an unexpected playoff appearance.
So knowing how things went during his brief but memorable tenure with the Leafs, it is certainly interesting that O’Reilly made a push to Trotz to make a trade for Marner.
We may never know how discussions between the two teams went if there even were any, but it makes you wonder what could have been. Would the Predators still have been able to bring some of the big pieces they ended up getting? Does Saros still sign his extension or does Yaroslav Askarov get his chance in Nashville? How much would this have impacted the Leafs’ work in free agency? Would the departure of Marner mean the Leafs go after someone like Stamkos or Jake Guentzel instead?
It will remain a mystery because the Predators’ big signings on July 1 likely mean they are out of the running for Marner. And thus, we will have no choice but to continue to wait on how this will all unfold in the coming weeks and months.
