NHL Trade Talk
Flyers Must Avoid Mitchell Marner Trade with Maple Leafs
The Philadelphia Flyers and the Toronto Maple Leafs are two teams at opposite ends of the NHL spectrum. The Maple Leafs are a team that, conceivably, has too much talent up top, while the Flyers have very little. A Mitchell Marner trade could make sense for both sides, but it’s not something the Flyers should seriously consider.
Marner, 27, has established himself as one of the NHL’s premier forwards, scoring no fewer than 85 points in each of the last three seasons. He’s also had three 90-point seasons during his time with the Maple Leafs.
Despite all his regular season successes, Marner has a reputation amongst the hockey community for being an inconsistent playoff performer. This is a title that is earned, not given. And it’s one of several reasons why the Flyers should pass on Marner.
Marner has three postseason campaigns in which he produced a point per game or better offensively, but he also has four in which he scored one goal or fewer. That’s not good enough to be marketed as a superstar player on a team that would otherwise be absent of co-stars like Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
There’s no question that the Flyers desperately need a player of Marner’s caliber to truly make noise in the regular season and, eventually, the Stanley Cup playoffs. Matvei Michkov will give them that eventually.
The issue is that Marner just turned 27, while Michkov is only 19 years old and hasn’t immigrated to North America yet.
Further to that point, Marner already has a $10.903 million AAV, which will only increase once he inevitably signs a new contract, be it with the Flyers, Maple Leafs, or another team. Couple that with the fact that the Markham, Ontario native only has one year left on his current deal, and the Flyers would be tasked with making a monster commitment after a Marner trade in a very short period of time.
The Flyers already have another 27-year-old in Travis Konecny up for a lucrative contract extension as early as July 1, and by executing a Marner trade, they’d have two. Do the Flyers really have a foundation already in place to take advantage of the prime years of these two players?
No, they don’t. Otherwise, they would have been a playoff team this season.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere has already reiterated his steadfast commitment to the rebuild without cheating or taking shortcuts. A Marner trade now would be like buying a Ferrari without knowing how to drive stick.
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Jonathan, briere said again today, they are not going to cheat. Meaning, trading for older more expensive players to get better in the short term. I didn’t read your article, I only needed to see the headline. I don’t know how many times the front office has to repeat itself for people like yourself to understand that they have a plan and are going to stick to it. They are well out in front of any ideas you or I can come up with. Let it rest.
All good points. Plus, he tends to float.
We all float down here
if, and only if Michkov comes over do you consider getting someone like Marner. He tends to float? Who currently on the Flyers is a better player than Marner? No one. Marner is already a great defensive forward as well as being an 80+point per year player. If the circumstances were right, it would absolutely be a great fit.
Yeah, Rick MacLeish tended to float but he was a regular 30-50 goal scorer through his career with the Flyers. I wouldn’t call MM a great defensive forward but I would take his overall play if he was scoring 40-50 a year, but he’s averaging 24 per season.
Times have changed…players are bigger on defense and rinks have not been enlarged…space and time are now at a very minimum. And bigger d-men also tend to be more courageous and block more shots these days..perhaps of the better safety equipment and mandatory helmets and shield if desired.
I guess if the Rangers decided not to go after Panarin what would they look like now, or Knights not going after Jack Eichel what would have happened last year with them, or Panthers passing on Tkachuk two years ago, where would they be right now.
Briere should go after Marner….offer the 12th pick, Noah Cates and also Shanahan and the Leafs must take Risto and his full contract then also add in a prospect from the Phantoms.
The cap relief helps the Flyers and also Leafs since Risto is half the cap hit of Marner.
Plus it is obvious from the Bruin series….the Leafs could have used a more physical presence on the blue-line
As for the Flyers down the middle there would be Coots, Marner, Frost and Laughton.
And the power-play right away gets better with Marner.
I am willing to bet Torts would take that trade.
hes not a center
You lost me with the clickbait headline. There is no must. But there is a will – as in I will find another site if the clickbait continues.
As for Marner, he’s too old for what we’re trying to do here.
27 is too old…he turned it yesterday?
Very clever. Unfortunately, you MUST brush up on your reading skills and find out what clickbait actually means. If I said Flyers “will”, I’d be falsely promising something I can’t guarantee. When I say “must”, I’m giving my educated opinion. If you take your readership elsewhere, you WILL miss out. Hope that helps.
According to estimates Flyers will have CAP space of $179k going into next season. This rebuild will take awhile. If we draft poorly woof.