The NHL Combine meetings head of the 2024 draft are taking place in Buffalo during the first week of June. All 32 franchises have sent representatives to the event, including the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Leafs general manager Brad Treliving had “his first day at the combine” on June 3, and he “had a packed Tuesday,” according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
Treliving touched on many things, including potential extension offers handed to pending free agents Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi. Most interestingly, he delivered a strong message to everybody paying close attention to the Mitch Marner saga.
“The thing I would say is, be very, very careful of what you read out there,” Treliving said on June 3, via LeBrun, when asked about Marner’s ongoing speculation.
“Mitch is a hell of a player. He’s going into the last year of his contract. We’re not going to comment on any players. Any business that we conduct, we’ll do that between Darren Ferris and us. We’re not going to do play-by-play on it,” Treliving said. “We’ve got to look at every possible way for our team to be better.
“Mitch controls a lot of this whole thing. If there’s a way to make our team better, we’re going to do it. But we’re certainly not going to make a trade just so we can pound our chest and say, ‘Look, we’re different.'”
Mitch Marner’s Future With the Maple Leafs
As Treliving noted, Marner “controls a lot of this whole thing,” considering the winger is under contract through the end of the 2024-25 season and holds a full no-move clause. That allows Marner to block any trade the Leafs might agree to with another franchise.
Moreover, he can play his contract out and become a free agent in July 2025. Marner, however, has indicated his desire to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the future by signing an extension, provided the franchise offers it to him.
As LeBrun outlined in his story from Buffalo, Marner and the Leafs have three potential paths to explore this offseason and, potentially, during next season:
- Marner can sign an extension this summer if the Leafs offer him the terms he wants and a contract that fits the franchise’s financials.
- Marner can let his contract run out in July 2025 by blocking trades and not extending his current deal.
- Marner can allow the Leafs to work on a trade to one of the other 31 franchises by waiving his NMC.
Marner has amassed 639 points (194 goals and 445 assists) in 575 regular-season games. The winger has scored 50 points (11 goals and 39 assists) in the playoffs with Toronto.
Leafs Determined To Make “Bold” Changes
During the end-of-season media availability held by the Leafs in May, the GM made clear they were open to change, saying “everything must be on the table,” via Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com.
“When you go through a season as we have, everything must be on the table,” Treliving said on May 10. “Everything needs to be looked at. Everything needs to be considered.”
Speaking on Tuesday, June 4, GM Treliving doubled down on that telling LeBrun the Leafs “are not scared to be bold” ahead of the 2025 season.
“We’re not scared to be bold and do things,” Treliving said. “But there’s got to be things to do out there. So we’ll see. But for me, we’ve got a really good player in Mitch Marner. That’s a good thing. We’ll just keep plugging away on it.”
Entering the offseason, Toronto will be forced to reshape its roster whether it includes Marner or not. That’s because of the many free agents they will place in the market.
Toronto has 10 pending unrestricted free agents and four restricted free agents, including some high-profile players such as 43-point scorer Bertuzzi and 47-point forward Domi. Those two will become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
The full list of upcoming Leafs free agents also features Connor Dewar, Noah Gregor, Nicholas Robertson, TJ Brodie, Joel Edmundson, Mark Giordano, Ilya Lybushkin, Timothy Liljegren, Ilya Samsonov, and Martin Jones.
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Maple Leafs GM Issues Warning on Mitch Marner Speculation