In less than two weeks, spanning from April 30 to May 9, the Toronto Maple Leafs came back from a 1-3 postseason deficit, navigated a bench beef, crashed out of the playoffs at the hands of the Boston Bruins, held end-of-season press conferences, and ultimately fired head coach Sheldon Keefe.
The next checkboxes the Leafs will need to tick are linked to the hiring of a new coach (with an ‘odds-on favorite’ candidate already identified) and to a potential extension or trade of superstar forward Mitch Marner.
ing a no-move clause in his current contract (which expires at the end of next season), former Leafs player and current NHL analyst Nick Kypreos made an interesting reveal that indicates otherwise in a column written for the Toronto Star on May 9.
“Here is the good news for Marner,” Kypreos wrote. “There are already multiple NHL teams that have reached out and shown a keen interest in a three-time all-star player who closes in on 100 points every season.”
Marner scored 85 points in 69 regular-season games this season but he’s coming off 97- and 99-point years in the prior two campaigns, in which he played 72 and 80 games respectively. He also broke the 90-point barrier in 2019 with 94 points appearing in all 82 games.
If the Leafs want to complete a trade that sends Marner away from Toronto and opens cap space, however, they will need to accomplish two things: find a trade partner and convince Marner to waive his no-move clause to facilitate such a move.
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