Sure, Marleau can say 'Hell no I won't go.' That worked out wonderfully for the Muskoka 5, didn't it? You say he has all the cards? Sure he does, except the most important one for a player who wants to play. The leafs are perfectly free to sit him in the pressbox, especially if his age starts to show a decline as it may. Honestly, he's got as good a chance to win the cup if he agrees to be traded to a lesser team. For example, plenty of players at every trade deadline get moved from bad teams to contenders who did better than the Leafs this past year. Nash certainly made it further into the playoffs than Marleau did, as did Statsny, Tatar, Brassard etc. Does Marleau agree to a deal after he's made 90% of his money from the team. Maybe, maybe not. Does him staying make the Leafs in 2019-2020 a better team than without him, considering they won't be able to easily replace Gardiner and Hainsey with his cap hit on the books? Probably not. Does playing with a bad team hinder his chances of playing with a contender when that time comes around. No, no it doesn't, not at all. Given where that cap hit is going to be needed to push them over the top. Sure he will do what he will do. And so will Leafs management if they think what they are doing will make their team a better team. And we are all allowed to speculate on that, because this is what these forums are for.