Maple Leafs reporter drops bold take on Mitch Marner ahead of the season
Reporter Nick Alberga doesn't believe that Mitch Marner should be named an alternate captain as he likely won't be a member of the Maple Leafs beyond next season.
The Maple Leafs changed up the leadership of the team last week when they stripped John Tavares of the captaincy and gave it to Auston Matthews instead. John Tavares will be given the "A" as an alternate captain and its expected that Morgan Rielly, who has been with the Leafs the longest of the remaining group, will also get an "A".
That leaves one "A" left, and current signs point to Mitch Marner getting it, as he was seen front and center at the Auston Matthews captaincy ceremony, but reporter Nick Alberga doesn't believe that would be the right choice.
Nick Alberga was on the "Leafs Morning Take" show where he discussed the possibility of having Mitch Marner play out the final year of his contract without any letters on the front of his jersey.
My reasoning is, and this is not about Marner -- you are passing the torch to the next wave... You're trying to overturn this roster a bit, Tanev is signed for six years. I think you would be doing to same thing if you brought the same leadership group back."
Jay Rosehill is Nick Alberga's co-host, and also a former Maple Leafs player, and was very shocked by those comments, going as far as asking Alberga if he was actually serious or just messing around, to which Alberga double downed on his comments.
Mitch Marner is going to be paid $10.9 million in his final year with the Leafs. Reports have surfaced that the Marner camp is expected to command a salary of at least $12 million on his next deal. The Leafs could be in trouble as they may not have all those funds available.
GM Brad Treliving would much rather take that $12 million and spread it out over two or maybe even three players. They could perhaps target a top pairing defenseman instead to balance out the lineup, as the team has tons of goal scoring but could always use another superstar on the blue line.
The Leafs have two options when it comes to Mitch Marner: they can trade him by the deadline to ensure he doesn't walk away for nothing, or let him play out his contract so that they can make use of him in the playoffs.
Marner can then walk in free agency and the Leafs can use the money they saved on a top defenseman instead. Let's say the Leafs choose the second option, there are plenty of big name players that will be UFA's at the end of next season.
Here is a list of potential UFA defensemen the Leafs could target next summer:
- Shea Theodore
- Aaron Ekblad
- Jakob Chychrun
- Esa Lindell
- Adam Larsson
- Dmitry Orlov
Every single one of those players listed above are on expiring contracts, so the Leafs would easily be able to sign one or even two of them with the savings they will gain from the Mitch Marner contract.
Mitch Marner is likely going to have a big year next season and improve on the 85 points he picked up in the 69 games he played with the Leafs, but due to the fact that he is likely not going to be with the team long-term, it may be wiser for the organization to give the "A" to a player who is expected to be there long-term, such as William Nylander or Chris Tanev, which is exactly the message Nick Alberga was trying to explain to the fans.
Source: ESPN
Mitch Marner Stats
| POLL | ||
Should Mitch Marner be given an "A" on his jersey? | ||
| Yes | 209 | 52.4 % |
| No | 190 | 47.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
