(Apologies in advance for the length of this post)
I've been thinking recently about the inevitable, upcoming PR spin from both the Leafs and the Marner camp once he departs (assuming he does). I actually expect both sides to underplay things, but I can also see how things might get fairly ugly.
Treliving's MO up to now has been to stick to the usual cliches, provide platitudes about Marner and keep things business-like, even during the Rantanen waive-request saga. He may decide to continue to take a relatively tight-lipped approach and just say he believes that stuff that was behind-the-scenes should remain that way even after the player departs. However, I think it's also possible that he will feel (or be told by Pelley) he has to explain the organisation's side of things, with some degree of detail, to the fanbase, who are concerned about how we got to the point of Marner walking. (On a side note, Shanahan did something similar in his detailed breakdown of why he decided to fire Dubas, so there's precedent within the organisation to not always be so tight-lipped. There was PR on both sides of that, but I actually wasn't surprised at all when Dubas' statement was quite bland and didn't provide a contradictory, first-hand rebuttal of Shanahan's account. There are always a million details we never hear about and I've long suspected the near-silence on this was part of obscuring the details of Dubas' move to Pittsburgh, which caught exactly nobody by surprise given there were rumours for weeks that he was trying to engineer precisely the move that he ended up making.) So, Treliving may well come out with the Leafs' version of events, but I don't expect him to initiate a PR battle of words and I think it's similarly unlikely that we'll see him airing grievances or using any of the ammo he's bound to have compiled through dealings with Ferris, conversations with Mitch or other trade proposals etc. Unless, of course, his hand is forced by the Marner camp.
Similarly, I'm also not convinced that Mitch actually will want to air his gripes publicly and think another banal statement is the most we will get. The frequent, recent reports from likely Marner proxies in the media (and amplified many times over here) regarding his hurt feelings about his allegedly terrible treatment by the team and his supposed persecution by the fanbase/media, suggest Mitch doesn't have the personal qualities needed to express his complaints in his own words. From a PR point of view, though, I'm not sure what the upside would be for continuing that after he leaves, anyway, particularly given the fact he's been paid upwards of $70 million US (minus endorsements) and he's the one that ultimately has decided to leave. I think he'll probably want to maintain or re-establish a bit of dignity on the way out in the hope that his image can be rehabilitated at some point. Whether it's right or not, there's a chance his initial homecoming will not be a very warm one and he can look right at Tavares' experience in Long Island as an example of what may be in store for him, in the short term at least.
But, I also think that his next contract will greatly inform the PR spin his camp chooses to roll out and therefore the Leafs' own spin in response. Perhaps those mega-offers teams are supposedly lining up to give him don't transpire quite as expected (which I think is possible, if you look at the list of teams with cap space to fit in what he's likely to be asking for) so he may feel the need to compensate for that through some PR (ed.: arguably, this has already started; see Postscript below). I could see how that could prompt some revealing rebuttals from the Leafs. Then again, some prominent voices in the media (and a small number here, too) are looking at this in a less emotive way by simply saying: it's time for you to go, so thanks for the memories, best of luck but the team needs something different. I get the sense there's a chunk of of the fanbase who will just be glad to see the back of him in their long-standing hope for a culture shift away from playoff softness, who will welcome the freed-up cap space and who could care less about any PR games.
This is all just speculation and opinion, of course. We'll only ever hear a fraction of the behind-closed-doors info on this chain of events. I doubt we'll get the dirty laundry/Festivus moment some might hope for. This is my point: there's a million details that we're not privy to that inform the choices these execs, players and agents make. There are posters here that like to present themselves as knowing more than others about the inner workings of the teams and players but as far as I can tell nobody here has any insider access...unfortunately for those of us keen to find out what is actually happening behind the scenes in Leafland.
Postscript: I've just seen the new reports about the supposed 'Marner sweepstakes' perhaps lasting until mid-July. I'm not surprised this is what's being put out there given the apparent options (or lack of them?) that seem to be shaping up for Marner. But, while I expect to see more of the same coming out of the Marner camp over the next couple of weeks, I'm mostly posting about the PR spin in the aftermath, for what it's worth.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any responses.
