Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs will try to keep any contract talks quiet, but that isn’t an easy thing to do in Toronto
Sportsnet 590 The Fan: Elliotte Friedman on Toronto Maple Leafs pending UFA Mitch Marner and him not wanting to talk about his contract situation this season.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Ailish Forfar: “Let’s talk about Leafs camp because you were down there. obviously today. It’s always a fun one, maybe an interesting one. You guys trying to get information out of the players. What was the biggest learning, looking ahead at this upcoming season?
Friedman: “Well, I think the biggest thing today Ailish was that they are really going to try to clamp down on the Marner talk. That, that was obvious. You know, he came right out and he said, Look, I. I’m not going to talk about it.
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His agent now, Darren Ferris, earlier this week, I got the same quote too, is that we’re not going to talk about it. And Brad Treliving said he’s not going to talk about there is definitely a concerted effort, not only when it comes to Marner, but with everything on the Toronto Maple Leafs to keep information they don’t want out a lot more secure than it used to be.
It’s probably in a lot of ways, it’s a smart thing. You know, I don’t think it’s good for Marner. Like, I like, like, the one thing I think about Marner is, I, like when he gave, like, when he gave that passionate talk about how much he wants to stay in Toronto. I really do believe that. And I think the discourse around his contract hurts him, and he’s not even responsible for most of it.
So I think not only is it smart to do that from a, from an overall point of view, I think it helps him. Now we did an interview with them. I’m not exactly sure it’s going to air. And one thing I did ask him that he did answer was, some players, once the puck drops, they’re like, no more talks. Talks are over. I want to concentrate on the season.
He said that he doesn’t have that rule, but it will be like, I don’t want to hear about it unless I absolutely have to hear about it. so he’s going to leave it to his agent Darren Ferris and his GM Brad Treliving.
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But he won’t necessarily, if it’s not done before the season, he won’t shut it off, he’ll just say ‘Don’t talk to me unless I absolutely need to know.'”