Player Discussion Mitch Marner, Yet Again

[ClarkSittler]

Being ready to make a call on Marner should have been the top criteria on who gets the job. His agent is known for walking guys to UFA and his value around the league isn’t exactly a secret that only the Leaf GM knows.

Fair point, but Treliving was only a few days into the job and likely didn’t even have the authority to sign or trade Marner without ownership’s approval. If his agent’s history matters, Shanahan should've been aware of that and acted accordingly. Whether it was Tre and Shanahan's call, someone dropped the ball.

We're in a no win situation, if he has a good playoffs the price tag goes way up, if he sucks again how can we justify signing a player who can't get it done at the most important time of year?

 

[Martin Skoula]

Fair point, but Treliving was only a few days into the job and likely didn’t even have the authority to sign or trade Marner without ownership’s approval. If his agent’s history matters, Shanahan should've been aware of that and acted accordingly. Whether it was Tre and Shanahan's call, someone dropped the ball.

We're in a no win situation, if he has a good playoffs the price tag goes way up, if he sucks again how can we justify signing a player who can't get it done at the most important time of year?

Yeah it’s more on Shanahan than anyone. If you’re hiring a crisis management guy to deal with your ship being on fire and about to sink in 6 weeks or whatever it was, nobody wants to hear “he needed a few months to get a feel for the ship before starting to work on putting the fire out”. Yeah it’s not fair to the guy coming in that Lou and Dubas got more patience but that’s the nature of the job when your core is 20 on an ELC vs 26 and hitting UFA in a few months, you don’t get the same length of on-ramp and that’s why you’re getting paid millions to figure it out.

 

[Dekes For Days]

That’s an odd statement considering your negativity towards Berube and his 0-0 playoff record.

You pointing at playoff record in response to my statement saying that I don't base everything on playoff record is the only odd statement here. Why would you expect somebody who doesn't base everything on playoff outcomes to wait until playoff outcomes to say anything? That's completely backwards.

If anything, you overemphasizing playoff outcomes and then having so much praise for Berube and his 0-0 playoff record is what's odd.

Also, I don't have negativity towards Berube. I just dislike when Berube does things that hurt the team. What would be odd is liking something that hurts the team.

 

[LeafEgo]

Why is that hysterical? We know for a fact that post Boston series there were a number of teams that reach out to Toronto to see if they could acquire him.

He’s also been getting his back kicked in by fans year after year. At some point you get sick and tired of that shit. No amount of money/childhood dreams is worth coming back and dealing with it.

Marner is going to have plenty of suitors in UFA. I don’t think he’s going to get a. 14 mill per year contract but he can go to a good team if he wants. He’s in his prime and players like him don’t often hit the market. The only thing we’ve heard is contrary to what you’re saying. The leafs want to sign him and Marner wants to be leaf. But if the playoffs don’t work out I think it’s perfectly reasonable for both the player and team to agree that it’s just not working here.

Yeah that's all fine, but the implication that his public posture to the Leafs and Fans might be that he 'wants to see success first in the playoffs or he's leaving' is essentially trolling.

Rightfully, it's the other way around.

Personally I dont really care, and perhaps not even true, but it's impossible not to see the humor in that.

 

[TopCheeseShotta]

Yeah that's all fine, but the implication that his public posture to the Leafs and Fans might be that he 'wants to see success first in the playoffs or he's leaving' is essentially trolling.

Rightfully, it's the other way around.

Personally I dont really care, and perhaps not even true, but it's impossible not to see the humor in that.

Maybe it can be both. Marner wouldn't want the pain of hanging around, annnnnddd Leaf fans and the ream might not love the idea of him sticking around with another disappointment. Could be, if there's any truth to any of this - that it would likely be mutual in some ways.

 

[francis246]

Yeah that's all fine, but the implication that his public posture to the Leafs and Fans might be that he 'wants to see success first in the playoffs or he's leaving' is essentially trolling.

Rightfully, it's the other way around.

Personally I dont really care, and perhaps not even true, but it's impossible not to see the humor in that.

As I said in my post, I think it would be more of a mutual thing where both team and player realize it’s not working out. It’s right there at the bottom of my post.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Yeah that's all fine, but the implication that his public posture to the Leafs and Fans might be that he 'wants to see success first in the playoffs or he's leaving' is essentially trolling.

Rightfully, it's the other way around.

Personally I dont really care, and perhaps not even true, but it's impossible not to see the humor in that.

Yup, there is humor there for sure.

Most likely scenario IMO is that Marner likes it here just fine. He feels he's treated like a god, he makes more in endorsements than he'd make anywhere else and of course most people as a general rule don't want to move, Toronto's a great place to live if you're rich so of course he wants to stay. And the Leafs figure they'll look bad if he walks for nothing (which is true) and not looking dumb seems to be more important to them than playoff success so of course they want him to stay.

It all comes down to agreeing on a number. History suggests that Marner is fine with his agent squeezing the org for every penny he can get so the only way we walks is that his ask is so absurd, that the Leafs figure that while letting him walk would make them look bad, bending over for his absurd demands would make them look even worse. Then it's up to Marner, either accept an offer that will undoubtedly make him one of the best players in the world, or leave to get a bit more. Hard to see him doing that when you consider all the reasons for him to stay so I just hope we stand firm at a number that's not too crazy, we'll see.

 

[ToneDog]

As I said in my post, I think it would be more of a mutual thing where both team and player realize it’s not working out. It’s right there at the bottom of my post.

As much as I would hate to run it back after another playoff disappointment, I'd rather sign him to a slightly higher Nylander deal than have him walk for nothing. Said it many times, sign at a team friendly deal and you will win over many of the fans you pissed off with your last negotiations.

You then need to add a Bennett to add a different flavour to the top 6. JT would have to give us a sweet deal or walk for nothing.

 

[francis246]

As much as I would hate to run it back after another playoff disappointment, I'd rather sign him to a slightly higher Nylander deal than have him walk for nothing. Said it many times, sign at a team friendly deal and you will win over many of the fans you pissed off with your last negotiations.

You then need to add a Bennett to add a different flavour to the top 6. JT would have to give us a sweet deal or walk for nothing.

If the leafs can get a deal like Pastrnak's with partial trade protection, that's a win. It's gonna be hard but I think you have to fight hard for that as a team. I think the leafs played a dangerous game, from a fan perspective, I don't see how this is going to be spun as a win for the leafs if they let him walk. If they felt like they don't want him, they should have moved him. They are caught in-between a rock and a hard place.

the funniest thing would be him signing for less than anticipated somewhere else, which I think is in play. Like I said, I don't see either Rantanen or Marner is getting 14 mill and we have anecdotal evidence from credible insiders that neither is looking for that number (we now know Marner does not want to be the highest paid leaf) so to see posters still claim that is the motivating factor is hilarious.

 

[Evilhomer]

Yup, there is humor there for sure.

Most likely scenario IMO is that Marner likes it here just fine. He feels he's treated like a god, he makes more in endorsements than he'd make anywhere else and of course most people as a general rule don't want to move, Toronto's a great place to live if you're rich so of course he wants to stay. And the Leafs figure they'll look bad if he walks for nothing (which is true) and not looking dumb seems to be more important to them than playoff success so of course they want him to stay.

It all comes down to agreeing on a number. History suggests that Marner is fine with his agent squeezing the org for every penny he can get so the only way we walks is that his ask is so absurd, that the Leafs figure that while letting him walk would make them look bad, bending over for his absurd demands would make them look even worse. Then it's up to Marner, either accept an offer that will undoubtedly make him one of the best players in the world, or leave to get a bit more. Hard to see him doing that when you consider all the reasons for him to stay so I just hope we stand firm at a number that's not too crazy, we'll see.

Out of curiousity, what are his endorsements? I don't feel like I've seen anything special in terms of endorsements he gets.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Out of curiousity, what are his endorsements? I don't feel like I've seen anything special in terms of endorsements he gets.

Currently according to Forbes' athlete profile, Marner currently earns $2M in endorsement deals from Nike, Beats by Dre, Red Bull, Oakley, Intact Insurance, and now PSD Underwear.

Mitch Marner Turns Heads, Posing in Bold Underwear Photoshoot to Launch New Endorsement Deal

Mitch Marner may have a second career in modeling if his new endorsement photos are any clue, as the Leafs forward recently signed a deal with PSD Underwear.

www.hockeypatrol.com

Perhaps this is the most relevant part re. leverage the Leafs have in contract negotiations:

It's not to the level of Auston Matthews who has almost a dozen endorsements ranging from RBC Bank to Prime Energy. Marner could be able to earn a few more if he stuck around in Toronto.