Toronto and Mitch Marner Could Shelve Extension Talks Until the End of the Year
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Mick Kern and Dennis Bernstein on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio and was asked if Mitch Marner will wear a Maple Leafs sweater come the start of the 2025-26 season.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres
Dennis Bernstein: “Here’s my last one for you. Okay, October 1, 2025, let’s say that’s opening night. Okay, which jersey is Mitchell Marner wearing?”
Dave Pagnotta: “It should still be Toronto.”
Bernstein: “Okay?”
Pagnotta: “Because I mean, he gets crapped on, especially in Toronto, way too much. And who was it, was a MacKinnon? Somebody came to his defense.”
Bernstein: “It was MacKinnon”
Pagnotta: “Just reemphasizing just how good of a player is when you see it from outside market. He’s, he’s, he’s phenomenal.”
Mick Kern: “He’s outstanding.”
NHL Rumors: Where Things are with Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs
Pagnotta: “His last three seasons, he’s either hit or been on pace for 90 plus points in every one of those seasons. He was on pace for last year. I think he cracks his century mark this season. By the way, if he’s healthy, I think he hits over 100 points. He’ll get paid. It really is going to come down to, I guess, how much the Leafs feel, they can add and insulate around Matthews and Marner and so on
Tavares is up after next, after the season as well. That money, if he does stay, he’s going to drop significantly. You have money for Marner. It’s just a matter of pushing that to the table. I think now, because the Leafs have waited, and they did have talks, and they did talk to other clubs about potentially moving him and what that would look like, and this that and the other.
And I think they had a good idea of where Marner would have accepted a move to. But with camp starting next week, I think at this point you’ll wait to see what you got. There aren’t Marners that just grow on trees. So I think even my mindset was, has shifted because at the start of the summer, I thought that they were definitely going to be going down that path. They definitely had those discussions.
NHL Rumors: Mitch Marner Will Be Playing Like He Wants To Big Raise
I just think now, I think it’s a wait-and-see mode, and both sides seem to be fine with that. The only one thing I will say, the one potential caveat I’ll say, is that his agent, with past clients if you don’t get a deal and you’re talking, you’re going into a talking year. If you don’t get a deal done by the start of the regular season, he really pushes to keep talks off until, Darren Ferris, until the end of the season, that team season.
I don’t have a problem with it. I think that’s likely a right place, and there’s no distraction. And you say it once, and that’s it. But they still got a month or so to figure that out if they want to go down that road.
But I’m starting to, I have started to lean a lot more DB towards Mitch sticking around. But they better pay them. And it’s going to be 13. 12, let’s say minimum $12 (million) a year.”
