Confirmed deal : Botched Mikko Rantanen Trade Makes Trading Mitch Marner Impossible

 

The Toronto Maple Leafs were not going to trade Mitch Marner anyways, but now they can’t.

After the Colorado Avalanche botched a trade for Mikko Rantanen (the return they recieved isn’t even worth half of what Rantanen provides) there is no way the Toronto Maple Leafs can consider a Marner trade.

 

The return for Rantanen borders on a joke, and there is no way the Leafs could take such a bad package for Marner.

Overpaying Marner is vastly preferable to trading a franchise player for a second-liner, a fourth liner and two nothing draft picks.

 

Any leverage the Leafs had in negotiations is now gone. This is why Treliving’s plan to punt this decision down the road was so dangerious. Now that a similar player has set the market, Treliving has been backed into a corner.

The Leafs can now take pennies on the dollar for the second-best player in the history of their franchise, or they can overpay him.

 

How about a round of applause for the Carolina Hurricanes though? Already the best team in the NHL statistically, they have added the best player possible and it barely cost them anything.

Martin Necas is a good player who is brutal defensively, but who can score. His value according to the Athletic, which assigns a number that encompasses a players entire value is + 8, Marner’s is +20 and Rantanen’s is +17.