TSN 1050: Darren Dreger on First Up with Korolnek and Colaiacovo when asked if Mitch Marner is still going to be with the Toronto Maple Leafs when the season starts.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Host: “The one question I get asked nonstop, especially over the last week…”
Dreger: “Yeah.”
Host: “Will Mitch Marner be a Maple Leaf when the season starts? And I don’t know how you answer that Dregs but I answer ‘Yes.’ I think he’s still gonna be a Maple Leaf.”
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Dreger: “I do too, and that’s, that’s the factual way to answer it today, right? Now Brad Treliving has a conversation with a club or clubs and there’s a potential trade scenario that develops from those conversations. Yeah, he can take that to the Marner camp and the Marner camp could say, ‘Yeah, all right. You obviously don’t want me so I’m okay with that.’ And by the way, there’s a big extension that comes with it. Okay. Yeah, fine.
But I, I’m also, I believe, based on people that I talked to, again, as we’re having this conversation, Marner’s preference is to play out his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. You got one year remaining.
Doesn’t mean that he’s going to walk out the door after the next year. That doesn’t, that doesn’t mean that at all. Of course, there’s risk of that because he’d be a pending unrestricted free agent. That’s not the perfect position for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But you know, Marner negotiated his deal in good faith including the no-move clause.
You know, Toronto find something or decide, and are we so sure that Toronto doesn’t want to extend Mitch? I’m not. I think that, I think Treliving would rather extend than trade, but they’re, they’re not having those discussions yet either. It’s still, it’s still early. It’s very premature across the board.”
Host: “Well, two weeks till July the first, and on July the first he is eligible to sign a contract.”
Dreger: “That’s right. Yep.”
Host: “So now we’re getting closer. That’s gonna be a really fun day and not to mention beyond Marner. I mean the Draisaitl story could be very interesting one as well because he too is eligible to sign a contract extension.
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And of course all the great free agents that are available guys like Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos and Jake Guentzel and Brandon Montour and Sam Reinhart and it goes on and on and on. So should be a very fun two weeks if you’re a fan of the NHL.”