Getty Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner entered the final 12 months of their partnership, at least as things stand, on July 1.
Marner’s contract runs through July 1, 2025, and unless there is an offer for a contract extension presented by the Leafs in the next 12 months then the forward will be an unrestricted free agent on that date.
It’s also worth noting that Marner’s contract includes a full no-move clause that allows the player to block any trade the Maple Leafs agree to involving the superstar. Marner carries a cap hit of $10.9 million in the final season of his six-year contract signed in September 2019.
Whether the Maple Leafs find a partner for a trade before the trade deadline a few months into the 2025 calendar year or offer Marner a new contract is still unknown.
That said, NHL insider Chris Johnston believes that Marner will enter the 2024-25 season locked into proving his doubters and critics wrong and convince the Leafs the best option is to re-sign him. He shared that feeling on the July 8 episode of The Chris Johnston Show discussing Marner’s future.
“Mitch is–he’s been around long enough to know how fickle fans can be in both directions,” Johnston said. “And I’m sure it’s in his mind. ‘I’m gonna play so well they got no choice but to love me again.’ Not to say people don’t love him. I think that he’s become kind of the lightning rod for this entire team.”
Maple Leafs’ Failures: Mitch Marner‘s Fault or Collective Issues?
The Maple Leafs have failed to get over the hump on a steady basis since Marner made his NHL debut in 2016-17. Toronto has reached the second round of the playoffs once (in 2023) since 2017. All other seven times they crashed out in the first round.
As Johnston pointed out in his podcast, however, that seems more like a collective failure than a problem with Marner and his production in particular.
“It’s a team’s failings, right? It’s not, like, the Leafs’ inability to progress long in the playoffs–sure Mitch Marner has a hand in it, but so does Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, [former head coach] Sheldon Keefe, [former general manager] Kyle Dubas,” Johnston said. “I guess we’ll [also] say [current GM] Brad Treliving although he’s only been there for one year.
“But it’s not one player or one person’s fault. (Marner) sort of becomes kind of, a lot of the energy goes in his direction on this one. But I would just say that I think all people want Toronto (to be) a team that wins.”
All things considered, it’s fair to blame some of the Leafs’ postseason failures on Marner’s subpar production in the playoffs. For context, Marner has averaged 1.11 points per game in the regular season throughout his career. On the other hand, he’s currently at an average of 0.88 points per game in postseason play.
Moreover, Marner has only scored more than 8 points in a single postseason run once (2023) and it took him 11 games to get there. Even then, fellow superstar forwards Tavares, William Nylander, and Matthews have scored fewer total points since 2017 than Marner in the playoffs.
Mitch Marner’s Trade Rumors Won’t Go Away
At the current pace, there will be a time not long from now when hockey analysts run out of ideas for potential Mitch Marner trades.
We’ve heard Marner’s name included in trade packages of all sorts, ranging from a swap for the captain of the New York Rangers, to a flip with a Vegas Golden Knights experienced defenseman, to a recent pitch that would move Marner to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a huge haul.
Some mid-July ponderings on the Maple Leafs t.co/EaTOR8ecpo via @koshtorontosun #Leafs #MapleLeafs #LeafsForever
Insiders keep saying we’re closer than not to the ending of the Marner trade saga and that we’re “heading into trade territory,” as Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun described it on July 12.
“The word coming out of the NHL draft at the end of June in Las Vegas was that if—a big if—Mitch Marner was going to be traded, it would take some time to consummate and probably wouldn’t happen for a couple of weeks,” Koshan wrote. “We’re heading into that territory on the calendar now, but there has been nothing to lead anyone to believe that a Marner trade actually will happen.”
No matter what the Leafs want to do, all control remains in Marner’s hands. He wants to sign an extension with the Maple Leafs, holds a full NMC, and is under contract for one more year. He could simply play out his deal and become a free agent in 2025.
For what’s worth, Marner scored 26 goals and assisted 59 for 85 total points in 69 regular season games throughout the 2023-24 campaign. In the playoffs, he had 1 goal and 2 assists for 3 points in 7 postseason games.