I've never seen this site fantasize about a player leaving a team in UFA like Matthews and the Leafs. Some of you guys just want Leaf fans to suffer.
Probably not as much as him being 40 years old had.
I can't blame them. Marleau bailed on the organization that was his home his entire career for a few extra bucks, and now expects them to welcome him back with open arms. Sorry, but everyone else will get theirs first, and if there is any left, then you can maybe get some.
As a person in the room? Absolutely. As a player on the ice? I doubt it. We're at the point where Babcock needed his toys taken away from him. Marleau played more ice time than Matthews and Nylander a lot of nights, with equal PP time to Tavares, Marner, Matthews, and Kadri. He was routinely played in key moments, right up until Babcock sat Matthews on the bench in game 7 to put Marleau over the boards, only to be quoted after saying "We thought Marleau should be out there".
By the end of the year, he couldn't even accept a basic pass. That is not hyperbole by the way. Every single play died on his stick. He looked completely gassed every single shift. He put up a 30 point pace after xmas and that is being fed minutes with some of the best offensive talent going and filled with PP time.
He is done as anything other than a 4th line energy guy. If someone signs him under the pretense he can play a top 9 role effectively for 82 games, you are going to have a bad time. The only time he looked good was the first month of last year and after the Xmas and allstar breaks, yet refused to miss games to rest into the playoffs because of his iron man streak and that selfishness contributed to the playoff loss where he was useless once again.