Friedman believes Mitch Marner's days in Toronto are numbered

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Julien Trekker
May 6, 2024 (2:48 PM)

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The renowned insider Elliotte Friedman believes that Mitch Marner's days in Toronto are numbered.

Marner, who must take a big part of the blame for the Leafs' embarassing game seven loss against the Boston Bruins, could be out of the Maple Leafs' organization sooner than later.

In the overtime period of the last game against the Bruins, Marner's lack of effort led to Boston's game winning goal.

If you missed it, watch it here:

After the tough loss, Marner showed that he isn't cut out for a market as big as Toronto. He refused to own his mistake and talk with the media.

Following that big mistake, he refused to show up in front of the media, which only shows that he doesn't fit in Toronto's tough market.

"Marner and Rielly not addressing the media after game 7 is a joke btw. 2 guys with letters make mistakes on the final goal and they can't even go out there and own it. Would not care if they were not back next year."

The insider Elliotte Friedman talked about Marner's situation in Toronto and revealed that his days with the Leafs could be numbered.

This is what he said:

"Has he gotten to a point where he thinks, long term, it's just better for him to be somewhere else? He was tentative, he was nervous, during these playoffs, you could see it."

"Marner never really had a moment and now because of where we are in the calendar of his contract, that becomes white hot under the microscope."

"To me the number one question is what does he think? Does any part of him think that it's time?" asked Friedman. "But I do think it's possible that he will think about it. It doesn't mean that he comes right out and tell the Leafs 'Get me out of here' but I do think there will be a Marner collective, as in the people around him, conversation about 'Maybe is it better to go somewhere else?'"

"I don't know if he's gonna say that publicly, it's probably not in his best interest to say that publicly. I do think on some level, especially the people who represent him, you're not doing your job if you at least say 'Mitch would this be better for you?"

"They go could full scorched earth," said Friedman. "They could say 'Not only are we not offering you what you want, but were thinking maybe it's better if we just use the cap room.' And they can say 'If you don't wanna play ball with us that's fine, we can play it out next year, but what that means is you're not gonna get your extension here and you're not gonna get your 8th year.'"

"People are saying there's nothing the Maple Leafs can do and it's not true," added Friedman. "They can force the situation and say 'Look guys, this is what we are going to do, this is how we are going to handle it, and you can decide to work with us now or you can decide to make your decision later."

"I think that's kind of where we are right now."

With Marner's contract set to expire next year, we should get to the bottom of this summer or during the next season.

Stay tuned.

Source: Hockey Patrol - Elliotte Friedman believes Marner is on his way out of Toronto