Tavares was on for one more EVGA than Marner. JT was -3 and Marner was -1; Marner wants $13.5m and JT is in the realm of $5m.
Again, you should know better the level of competition Marner was tasked with. Florida’s top line was mostly kept in check with Marner and Matthews on the ice against them. Had that been Tavares, he would have probably been -10. Marner also scored 13 playoff points to Tavares’ 7. Marner had a GWG and a primary assist on a GWG against Florida. He’s 28. Tavares is 34 going on 35. That difference in money being spent is warranted because Marner is entering his prime while Tavares is entering his wheelchair years which means whatever money you “save” is spent on making sure he’s less of a liability. Was Tavares 7th in Selke voting? No, he wasn’t. He never has been. He never will be. Does Tavares kill penalties? No, he doesn’t. This idea of savings is basically admitting you want inferior players on the team as long as it saves you money to pay for more inferior players.
Here’s the thing – there’s not a single Leaf fan that wasn’t secretly hoping that Mitch Marner would finally – FINALLY – show up in the playoffs and be THE guy. Take charge. Own the ice. Own some shifts single-handedly – because at the amount he wants to paid, he should. And yeah, just ‘cos you might be thinking it – we have seen Matthews do it in the playoffs – like last year against Boston, before McAvoy pitch-forked his head into the ice giving him a concussion. But we didn’t and still haven’t seen Marner strap the team to his back when they need it.
He won games. He had more playoff points than Matthews. Led the team in scoring even without a 100% Matthews. Marner did show up and did his part. He’s not McDavid, no but he’s not the problem here as it’s been proven time and time again. And losing him for nothing won’t make things better either. Clearly, this will not be addition by subtraction. This is a straight subtraction of talent.
We haven’t seen that from any of them at crucial times. Matthews get a pass this year due to injury. Tavares gets a pass due to age and his new contract demands. I don’t expect my $5m guy to do that. Nylander doesn’t get a pass. He vanished and sucked – and was the passenger – at the end of the Florida series. At this point I’m resigned to the facts that Marner wants to leave, Nylander doesn’t – so all the pretend fabrications of moving one guy and keeping the other – just so you can VASTLY overpay someone is just plain mismanagement.
What’s Matthews’ excuse all the other years he didn’t show up? He was busy shitting his pants last year too, right? I wonder what excuse he will have next playoffs without an elite passer feeding him the puck all year and on the PP.
Rielly gets a pass too? How many passes does he get? Or does he give them away like he does on the ice?
You are correct, Nylander disappeared from Game 4-7. If Marner walks it’s because they pushed him out the door while making excuses for everybody else. Why? Because they need him to take a discount while they overpay everybody else? Because they need cap space to sign more defensively dog shit passengers?
Will we miss Marner? At times, yes. But not likely in the playoffs.
Factually incorrect. Which is rare for you. He directly helped win 2 of the 3 games they won against Florida. More career playoff points than Matthews, Nylander and Tavares. When Florida puts the band back together, the Leafs will not have Marner, Bennett, Marchand or anybody else that will make that kind of positive difference. Florida will mop the floor with them again as losing your best players for nothing has consequences of losing in the playoffs. And Marner will win, just like Kadri, somewhere else.