Who should take the blame in Toronto for letting Marner walk and get nothing in return? | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League

Who should take the blame in Toronto for letting Marner walk and get nothing in return?

SeanMoneyHands

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Apr 18, 2019
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100pt players don't grow on trees. Marner is an elite impact player. He was the Leafs best player this season. Leafs could have addressed some of their weaknesses had they been able to trade Marner instead of having him walk for nothing. He had a NTC so Leafs management's hands were tied. Treliving tried to trade him for Rantanen at the deadline but Marner would not waive his clause.

Who should take the blame? Dubas for giving him that term with a NTC? Or Shanahan?
 
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As a Habs fan. The fault is definitely with Brandon Shanahan.

Dubas tried to trade one of the core 4 before the NMCs kicked in and was fired that same week.

Marner had a NMC and his wife was expected to give birth less than a month after the trade deadline so can't blame him for not waiting.

When Brad showed up the NMC kicked in like 2 weeks later and his boss fired the previous guy for trying to trade Marner.

100% on Shanny.
 
As a Habs fan. The fault is definitely with Brandon Shanahan.

Dubas tried to trade one of the core 4 before the NMCs kicked in and was fired that same week.

Marner had a NMC and his wife was expected to give birth less than a month after the trade deadline so can't blame him for not waiting.

When Brad showed up the NMC kicked in like 2 weeks later and his boss fired the previous guy for trying to trade Marner.

100% on Shanny.
Fair, the root cause was Shannahan hiring Dubas in the first place instead of someone qualified to work in hockey ops.
 
Fair, the root cause was Shannahan hiring Dubas in the first place instead of someone qualified to work in hockey ops.

Based on media out of Toronto. Dubas tried to minimize the damage by trading Marner before the NMC kicked in and was fired before he was allowed to make the deal. Shanny hired Dubas who gave Marner the bad contract. Then Shanny wouldn't let Dubas fix his own mistake at a later day.

To me Shanny is 100% at fault.
 
Based on media out of Toronto. Dubas tried to minimize the damage by trading Marner before the NMC kicked in and was fired before he was allowed to make the deal. Shanny hired Dubas who gave Marner the bad contract. Then Shanny wouldn't let Dubas fix his own mistake at a later day.

To me Shanny is 100% at fault.
We don't know what kind of return Dubas would have gotten given. It's a difficult situation given his complete lack of understanding of the sport.
 
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We don't know what kind of return Dubas would have gotten given. It's a difficult situation given his complete lack of understanding of the sport.

People have to remember Dubas was trying to overthrow Shanahan in that presser by trying to gain autonomy. Or get fired and go to Pittsburgh. And the rumoured big deal he was after at that deadline was Erik Karlsson whom he randomly brought to Pittsburgh anyway. So it’s not clear Dubas was actually going to move Marner so much as an open ended alternative path.

The blame would go to Shanahan. Once the contract hit the NMC deadline there wasn’t any control on the organization side.

That said, a lot of the blame should go to Mitch Marner himself. The organization put a lot of faith in him and a small handful of players. They were not rewarded with success and his drama fuelled exit doesn’t exactly scream loyalty to an organization that stood by him for 9 seasons.

It’s time for a change in any case. $11 million in free cap space isn’t a bluechip asset but it’s also a significant new start.
 
Is it clear he won’t re-sign?

It doesn't look good.

NHL Insider Says Mitch Marner Won't Even Talk To The Maple Leafs

Screenshot_20250621_204955_Chrome.jpg
 
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Stop saying shit. It was obvious Toronto wasn't going to trade Marner before the playoffs, especially given how good he looked at the 4Nations. But he didn't play as good as expected in the postseason again, and Toronto decided (it looks like) to not resign him, and it was too late to trade him. It's as simple as this. There is nobody to blame, the situation is pretty typical.
 
I've always felt that the whole 'you have to trade a player before they get to FA' is overblown. In a cap world, cap space is huge. Sure you might not necessarily land an equivalent piece in free agency, but odds are if youre letting a 10 mil dollar player walk youre going to sign an 8 mil or so (or more) replacement.

Edit: the exception is if youre looking to rebuild. Then sure, you gotta move that piece and bring in some picks and youth. But if youre a team like TO who is most likely re-tooling/maintaining status quo, the loss can be negligible.
 
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Stop saying shit. It was obvious Toronto wasn't going to trade Marner before the playoffs, especially given how good he looked at the 4Nations. But he didn't play as good as expected in the postseason again, and Toronto decided (it looks like) to not resign him, and it was too late to trade him. It's as simple as this. There is nobody to blame, the situation is pretty typical.
Toronto tried dealing marner for rantanen, but he rejected to waive his NMC at the deadline
 
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