The Toronto Maple Leafs front office said everything would be on the table this offseason in terms of breaking up the core four. However, that hasn’t come to fruition yet and one trade pitch sees the team dealing Mitch Marner to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
With Marner entering the final year of his six-year $65.4 million deal, he has been the subject of trade rumors. The website PuckPedia has a new tool called PuckGM that lets users create their own trades, and one user proposed a multi-player deal for Marner to be dealt to the Penguins.
- Lars Eller
- Brayden Yager
- 2025 first-round pick
- 2026 first-round pick
Penguins get:
- Mitch Marner ($5.5 million retained)
The proposed trade is interesting as Toronto would unload Marner to the Penguins for more of a futures deal. The Maple Leafs would acquire top prospect Brayden Yager who Pittsburgh selected in the first round of the 2023 NHL draft. Along with Yager, Toronto would get the Penguins first-round pick in the next two years.
Then, the Maple Leafs would add Lars Eller who is a solid third-line center for the Maple Leafs and can help add depth to the bottom-six in Toronto.
As for the Penguins, they get a skilled winger in Marner as Pittsburgh is looking to try to take one last run at a Stanley Cup with their veteran core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson.
Marner would be projected to play on the top line with Crosby and would help boost the Penguins’ power play which ranked 30th in the NHL last season.
Dubas Focused on Making the Penguins Younger
Although Dubas was the GM who gave Marner the contract extension, it’s uncertain if he has any interest in a reunion with the skilled winger.
After the Penguins failed to make the playoffs, Dubas has said his goal is to infuse Pittsburgh’s lineup with younger players.
“The major focus for us is on right now acquiring as many young players, as many prospects and as many draft picks as we can to try to infuse the team with really good young talent, young players and then have that stocked up for the future as well and attempt to get us back into contention as quickly as we can,” Dubas said ahead of the NHL draft.
By making the proposed trade, Dubas and the Penguins would be going against that, as Pittsburgh would deal two first-round picks and their top prospect in Yager.
Maple Leafs Coach Eager to Coach Marner
Despite the fact that Marner has been the subject of trade rumors, insiders believe it is likely the winger will be in training camp as a member of the Maple Leafs this season.
Toronto went out and hired Craig Berube to be its new head coach and despite all the trade speculation, the coach said he was eager to coach the All-Star winger.
“He’s a character guy, a great person,” Berube said on June 29. “I’m looking forward to coaching him.”
Marner was drafted by the Maple Leafs with the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft. He has spent his entire career in Toronto as he’s skated in 576 games recording 194 goals and 445 assists for 639 points.
