After their elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, many fans believed that the Leafs would move on from Mitch Marner and today their GM Brad Treliving addressed these rumors.
The Toronto Maple Leafs once again had a disappointing end to their season losing in round 1 to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The loss sparked conversation in the fan base with many wanting Mitch Marner to be traded and head coach Sheldon Keefe to be fired.
Just a few weeks later Sheldon Keefe was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mitch Marner still remains a part of the team. Today GM Brad Treliving spoke about the Maple Leafs' plan of attack when it comes to Mitch Marner.
The thing I would say is, be very, very careful of what you read out there. Mitch is a hell of a player. He's going into the last year of his contract. We're not going to comment on any players. Any business that we conduct, we'll do that between Darren Ferris and us. We're not going to do play-by-play on it. We've got to look at every possible way for our team to be better.
It seems as though Brad Treliving will not be giving much information when it comes to the Mitch Marner saga throughout the process. He did confirm though that Mitch Marner and his agent do hold a good bargaining chip. Brad Treliving also confirmed they will not make a trade just so the roster looks different.
Mitch controls a lot of this whole thing (with the no-trade). If there's a way to make our team better, we're going to do it. But we're certainly not going to make a trade just so we can pound our chest and say, 'Look, we're different.'
This should be very positive news for Toronto Maple Leafs fans. This means the team is only going to focus on trades that they believe they can get value back in. If just trading Mitch Marner away was the goal they could do it but likely not get nearly as much value back.
With the NHL Draft, free agency, and the rest of the offseason on the horizon the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brad Treliving will have a lot of work to do to improve the team before the 2024-25 season.
