Agree wholeheartedly. If Marner wants to stay in Toronto and make it work long term I don’t think he needs all the prickly representation around him.
This is the kind of soft-handling that's poisonous.
A player is responsible for their own agent. The key word is that the agent is a
representative of the player. Whether Marner needs it or not, his representatives speak for him with his explicit consent through their continued employment.
Marner is responsible for his own life, his own career, his own play, his own relationship with the fans. He's 27 years old for goodness' sake, he's not some kid who's wincing in the corner while his jerk of an agent antagonizes the fans.
I know that I'm not really talking about you here, moreso other posters or the fanbase in general, but a big part of his problem is that people are always, always, always trying to let him off the hook for his responsibility. It's not that Marner stinks in the playoffs, it's the coach using him wrong, or he's hurt, or he's actually trying really hard guys, he swears and ROR said so. It's not that Marner stuck the screws to Dubas and then tried to win the fans back with a video, it's a mean agent and mean ol' Godfather Lou who made him do it. Keefe was being unreasonable when he called out the team, that's why he apologized, not because Marner (and possibly the others) demanded that he do so.
If Marner wants to make it work here long term, he doesn't need to kick the prickly representatives to the curb, or kiss the new coach's ring, or any of that. He needs to look the camera in the eyes and tell Leafs fans that he's let them down, that he understands our frustration with him, and that he is committing to be better in the future. Then go out and do it. It's the complete lack of responsibility with him that really drives me up the wall, it's always some reason, someone else's fault, some completely legitimate problem that overcame him and stopped him. That made sense the first five years, it doesn't make sense any more. As much as Matthews also needs to step up, be more consistent, care less about money and image and more about hockey, he's not the guy who's making excuses for himself. If Marner actually starts to own what has happened so far and what will happen in the future, the fans will come around. The talent is there, but the fans will only follow the honest player.