First Up: Mike Johnson, when asked where he thinks pending UFA Mitch Marner will end up. What type of situation is he looking for? Could he get everything he wants?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Dave Feschuk: “So MJ, if you look at, you know what Dregs is saying (last week) on overdrive, it’s his belief that, essentially, Marner is going to market. And you look at the market, I mean, you know, we’re looking at some of the betting odds here for where Marner could land.
There’s, there’s a group of teams that are, we would call kind of the, the sort of the, the non-contenders that are going to have cap space that would love a star player. The Chicago’s of the world. The Philadelphia Flyers of the world. Pittsburgh Penguins and old Kyle Dubas.
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There’s also teams that you know are very good. A team that was eliminated last (week), the Carolina Hurricanes, that have long been looking for a game-breaking player to go with their relentless wave after wave of possession.
What do you think is the more likely scenario for Marner? For him to go somewhere where, you know, he would be the star attraction on a team that’s really lacking stars, or to go to a better team, ala the Carolina’s of the world?”
Johnson: “I mean, I think, and you hear that, it seems there’s going to be just so many teams, perhaps understandably, interested in Mitch Marner, (inaudible) that he’d want to go. He’d want everything, right? He’d want the lifestyle, he’d want the contract, and he’d want the good team.
And so I think it’d be more likely that it’s Carolina or it’s Vegas or a team like that, that is, that is interested in him, as opposed to Chicago or maybe Anaheim or Montreal or Utah. Teams that aren’t quite there yet.
Now, all the teams I just mentioned, like, I would, Anaheim, would be interesting to me if I’m Mitch Marner. It might take a few years, but you’re there for seven. No, I don’t think he probably wants Montreal if he’s trying to get away from Toronto with some of the stuff that happens here.
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So, I would think good team (Feschuk). I think he is in a position, the rarest of positions, where he might be able to get everything that he wants – the money, the team, the city. And not many guys get to choose, but it looks like he might be in the position to be able to.”
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