Paul Bissonnette feels Marner should stay with Leafs one more year
Over the past several days, Maple Leaf sports and entertainment along with management, players and the fan base are sifting through the ruins of this year's season and first round exit to the Boston Bruins. Many have pointed blame towards Leafs forward Mitch Marner for his poor play, but Paul Bissonnette of the Spittin Chiclets feels he needs to remain for one more year.
The current conundrum that the Leafs are facing is that Mitch Marner is eligible for a contract extension after the playoffs are over. He has one year remaining at 10.9 million AAV and has a full no move clause. This presents major issues with the Maple Leafs as the idea of the core four players remaining together appears to be over.
The team and organization need to unzip this core and reallocate the money two other needs including secondary scoring, shut down defence and better goaltending depth. As Bissonnette states, Marner is a great talent in the regular season but seems to dry up as the playoffs begin and the lanes close on the ice.
During the locker clean out media day, Marner expressed that he wished to remain as a leaf for the foreseeable future. It's well known that he is heavily influenced in terms of how much money he would want and the term that he's looking for which will be well out of the Maple Leafs budget.
It will be fascinating on how general manager Brad Treliving will handle this player and this situation the team is in as he will be speaking to the media along with Brendan Shanahan and new MLSE CEO Keith Pelley on Friday morning.
It's safe to say, that the Leafs will have their fans on the edge of their seats again even though they are no longer in the playoffs.
| POLL | ||
Will the Leafs trade or keep Mitch Marner next season? | ||
| Yes | 19 | 82.6 % |
| No | 4 | 17.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
