Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – The Cup Final is Set episode talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner and their future.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “And we’ll finish up the news segment with this name and this won’t get much attention. Mitch Marner. Recently photographed in a …”
Friedman: “Coffee shop.”
Marek: “Coffee shop in the west end of Toronto with head coach Craig Berube. What is your spidey sense saying on Mitch Marner and Toronto, Elliotte?”
Friedman: “So everybody is really trying to not pour gasoline on the fire here, Jeff, so let’s do it.”
Marek: “No, here we go. Cracking it open. Who’s got the matches?”
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Friedman: “Everybody’s trying to be really careful here. But one of the things that a few people have told me is, not to be surprised if this plays out over next season with Marner in Toronto.
Now, there’s a lot of time between here and then and things can always change but this is such a delicate conversation between player and team because everyone is determined to look like a winner here.
The Leafs are determined to either make a good trade or with the cap room that’s created by that trade, do something big that they know they can’t afford to have a swing and a mess with this one. And also the player is determined, and more importantly, the people around the player are determined to do this, that make themselves look good, that they’re not going to agree to anything that they think puts them in a bad light. So this is a really complicated thing going in.
I want to throw a couple other points out there to you. Number one, I think that there is some real concern about how the Toronto fans will react to Marner if he starts next year, unsigned. And you can’t avoid that, and you know, some people and me, I’m the kind of person who’s like, look if you want to bet on yourself, bet on yourself. I’ve been on myself before. Other people have bet on themselves before. If that’s what Marner wants to do, I think he has all the right in the world to do it.
But he has to understand that some of the fan base is not going to react very well to that and you have to play through that are you comfortable with that? Can you handle that? And I do believe that’s one of the things that’s been discussed.
And I think with the Maple Leafs, the other issue that they are dealing with here and I think there are people in the organization who feel very strongly about this, is that they traded Nazem Kadri a couple of years ago when they were mad at him. And look, Kadri got suspended twice in a row. There, there are people who felt very strongly at the time that they had to make that trade. But Nazem Kadri went somewhere else, sorted himself out, was a critical member of a Stanley Cup champion, and is a player that Toronto very much missed after he left. And I think there are people in the organization who are looking at this and believe could this be Kadri 2.
Where Marner goes somewhere else, the spotlight is less intense. He learns how to balance everything and goes out and becomes a key player on a Stanley Cup champion in another city. Which I do believe could happen. To me that is a very legitimate thing. That Marner could go somewhere else quieter and really thrive.
I think he’s a great player. And I think he could become an even better player without the spotlight. And I do think there are people in the organization who are very scared of the possibility of that happening. And I think that’s part of the background to all this.
So look like, if the contract demands on both sides are crazy. It’s going to lead to an eventual divorce anyway. But I, I have to tell you, I, I don’t think there’s a certain way, I know there’s people are like 100% he’s getting traded. On Sunday, June the 2nd, I don’t know that I’m so certain of that.
And I think one of the biggest challenges here are going to be the, sort of like the feelings of everybody involved. I just think that this is going to take a lot of diplomacy for a lot of people to do properly.”
Marek: “This is a, you’re right, this is a delicate one. You always run the risk in this situation of going into next season, obviously without a contract and then here come the howls of, I’ll just be blunt Elliotte, Muskoka five the sequel.
And how do you handle skating through that? Like you remember when that happened, and those were some you know, veteran players with some pretty stiff spines. You know, Mats Sundin, Bryan McCabe and Darcy Tucker.
I think if you’re both you’re the player and the organization, I don’t think you want the player to go through that and I don’t think you want the team to go through that. That’s why this one has the potential to be a firecracker. And that’s why I agree with you when I say this one is a really tricky one.”
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Friedman: “Yeah.”
Marek: “… to sort out.”
Friedman: “Yeah. Because anytime there’s a report that paints one side in a bad light or says this one person has to do this.”
Marek: “Yes.”
Friedman: “I think people get their backs up.”
Marek: “I agree. All right. That is a story that will not go away.”