Never winning a thing because you sunk all your money into 3-4 guys who all play the same way and don’t have the balls to stand up when it counts is another sure way to lose your players. If the Leafs had insulated Marner with size and given him his own line to drive instead of putting him with Matthews, maybe the fanbase doesn’t scapegoat him and maybe he stays. They didn’t. An overwhelming majority of the fanbase hates him and wants him gone – ironically while driving him out of town, they’ll also hate him for not waiving his NTC for Rantanen because he wanted to stay.
They sunk their “depth” money into Tavares. Now it’s being eaten up by Kampf, Jarnkrok, Rielly and Tavares. Why continue to make the exact same mistake again? They had the “balls” to make Tavares the 2nd highest paid player in the league. 7 years came and went. No Cup. Why go back to that well ever again? They made him captain. They stripped him of the captaincy. He failed miserably against Florida. Why does he get to come back?
Fuck those fans. They don’t know a damn thing. And they should not influence management one bit because those are the same morons screaming to bring back Tavares at a “discount” so he can offensively disappear and defensively implode again and again and again in his Leafs pajamas.
You know who does want him back? Matthews and Berube. And that’s who should matter. If those bitch fans want to cry about Marner, tell them to stop watching. Bet you they won’t. Also bet you that if they do, there’s millions of people who will replace them in an instant. Nobody is canceling a season ticket because Marner gets an 8 year extension. Those tickets are already bought and paid for.
But Marner just does the same things every year – gets pushed to the perimeter and isn’t strong enough nor fast enough to push the defenders back when he’s entering the zone. The book on Marner is – close on him quickly and he’ll give away the puck.
You could say that about a lot of players, including the majority of players some people are suggesting can “replace” Marner from the UFA list. Most of which have far worse playoff stats than Marner. Is he still the 100 point force in the playoffs? No. But he scored against Ottawa, especially on the PP to win that round. And against Florida he did his part to win games even though he wasn’t filling up the stat sheet every game. One GWG and one primary GWG assist is significantly more than anybody else on the team not named Knies and Matthews who also had one GWG each.
If the goal is to beat Florida, why the fuck would anybody ever consider getting rid of any one of the three players who clearly helped win a game each? The top line of Knies, Matthews and Marner were NOT the problem against Florida. They didn’t blow the doors off them offensively but they kept their 1st line even.
He is nowhere near as talented, but Domi was more effective against Florida than Marner was. 9 years of all of these guys not showing up when it counts – and maybe you give them a pass for their first couple of years – but 7 years with Tavares – and none of them have stepped up when it mattered, and what’s worse is that they have actually played worse when it mattered.
The Red Wings almost traded Yzerman in 92 and again in 95. Drafted in 83, didn’t win a Cup until 97. It took Ovechkin 12 years to get past the Penguins and the 2nd round. The road to the Cup is not always immediate. The Leafs would be fools to give up on their best players for nothing because, unfortunately, it’s still the best option they got.
You should know this better than anybody that Domi wasn’t playing against the Barkov line. You also know that Domi is a maniac who takes idiotic penalties. He’s fine on your 3rd line but he’d get buried playing the harder minutes Marner had to play. Marner did step up against Florida, as I said earlier, he played a part in winning 2 out of the 3 games they did win. You subtract that, you don’t even get a sniff of Game 7.
How long do you get? How often can we keep trying with the same guys who don’t step up and get it done before we start to say we need other guys? It starts with Marner because he’s easy. You get nothing for him but you’re not overpaying him and he has to go – you heard the fans booing specifically him in game 7. In my opinion, there’s no coming back there.
How long do you tolerate Nylander after he disappeared in Game 5, 6 and 7? Oh, he doesn’t get a pass because that’s more difficult to trade him? Matthews had ZERO 2nd round playoff goals (still only has 1) and finished multiple years of playoff runs with 1 goal and terrible output. How long before they throw his jersey on the ice next? The mob can’t run this team because the mob is usually wrong, they’re just too stupid to know it.
I know Marner is fantastic and versatile and an excellent player. I also know that we have too much “Mitch Marner” on this team already and not enough Bennett and Marchand and Benn (I don’t want THIS Benn, I want prime Benn – but he comes to mind as what you need) and Perry. They need more asshole and a lot less pretty.
The problem is not our best players. The problem is the players we keep bringing back who are holding the team back. That would be Tavares, Rielly, Jarnkrok and Kampf. There is more than enough salary (17.5 million if you remove those guys) to sign the correct depth pieces if you simply remove the players that actually deserve to be removed from the team. You will not get Bennett and Marchand unless you grossly overpay for them. You do absolutely nothing positive by giving Bennett 9 million dollars a year on the back half of his career to score a career high 51 points and bringing back the pylons that are Rielly and Tavares who negate whatever good he brings.
When Marner walks for nothing, Bennett and Marchand resign with the Panthers, what will the Leafs do? They’re fucked.