Insider: By July 1, the Maple Leafs “will do everything” to trade for $65 million.
By July 1st, the Toronto Maple Leafs intend to move Mitch Marner, sources close to the team tell NHL insider Frank Seravalli.
Since the Boston Bruins eliminated the Maple Leafs in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Marner has been the focus of trade whispers. Marner has been connected to a number of teams as he approaches the last year of his six-year, $65.4 million contract. Marner would have to sanction any deal, though, as he has a complete no-movement clause.
However, Seravalli stated on June 24 on Sportsnet 590 The Fan that he anticipates the Maple Leafs will make every effort to deal Marner by July 1.
There is a good chance that it will occur this week if it is going to happen. “I believe the Toronto Maple Leafs will exert every effort to try and make something happen,” Seravalli stated on June 24 on Sportsnet 590 The Fan’s The JD Bunkis Show.
If you are a Leafs fan and you decide that this team has decided it is time to move on and he is not willing, how will it work out for him next season when the Leafs announce to the world, “Yeah, we tried to move him and he said no?” Seravalli continued. Whether he pursues it or not is another matter.
Because free agency opens on July 1, as Seravalli notes, the objective is to trade Marner by the end of June. For cap concerns, Toronto will need to know who they can sign in free agency and whether Marner will be on the team next season.
Marner finished the regular season with 85 points, 26 goals, and 59 assists in 69 games.
An insider claims that Marner’s extension is not on the table.
Seravalli predicts that Marner’s wish to stay with the Maple Leafs is unlikely to come true. Seravalli said Toronto won’t extend Marner, which is one of the reasons he thinks Marner will be dealt.
“It is not on the table to extend him.” Remove any emotion from the situation and consider this to be a straightforward asset management maneuver. You don’t want to prolong the contract of your top-15 and top-10 players in the league, so in a year it will be up. What possible sense would it make to go into the following season saying, “We’re going to use the last year of his deal and let him walk for nothing,” given that you are not moving him by the deadline, Seravalli questioned.
“It is not on the table to extend him.” Take emotion out of the picture and see this as a simple asset management strategy. The contracts of your top-15 and top-10 players in the league are set to expire in a year, therefore you don’t want to extend them. Given that you are not selling him by the deadline, Seravalli wondered what possible sense it would make to go into the next season stating, “We’re going to use the last year of his deal and let him walk for nothing.”
That would be the intention. I have said how much I adore this city and this place. I was raised here, of course. Marner stated on May 6 via The Athletic, “I’ll start thinking about (a contract extension) now and try to figure something out.”
Ever since Toronto selected Marner fourth overall in the 2015 NHL draft, he has been a member of the Maple Leafs.
Shelton Cole For Heavy.com, Cole Shelton writes about hockey. Since 2016, he has covered collegiate and professional sports for a variety of publications, including BJ Penn, USA Today, SB NatioRotowire,n, and Canadian Baseball Network. Additional information on Cole Shelton
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