Mitch Marner is headed for free agency, after the Core Four for the Maple Leafs -- also featuring Auston Matthews, John Tavares and William Nylander -- came up short yet again. A question for Red Wings fans, from Jim Costa: "Are you in or are you out on Mitch Marner?"
Marner will likely command a contract worth at least $13 million per year after a season in which he finished fifth in the NHL with a career-high 102 points. He just turned 28. Costa is in on Marner, with the Red Wings trying to snap a nine-year playoff drought and needing another proven producer at the top of their lineup: "He’d be their best player, period."
"If they have built this young nucleus of players that are going to grow and get better, this is the window to add a great player," says Costa. "They’ve got (Lucas) Raymond and (Moritz) Seider on long-term, cost-controlled deals, same with Dylan Larkin. They don’t have to give up any draft picks, they don’t have to give up any prospects, they have the cap space. I’m in on Marner. And I understand why some people may be hesitant, but he’s a 100-point winger who kills penalties, in the prime of his career."
With the NHL salary cap rising to about $95 million next season, the Red Wings will have north of $20 million in cap space this summer. "Yzerman has drafted well and they've got this assembly line of young players that are on the way," says Costa. "Marner fits the timeline."
"The other thing I’d say is, people worry about stalling out. Let’s say you add Marner and two, three years from now you’re a playoff team but you’re not a Cup team. I’d rather be two steps from the Cup than five steps from the Cup, which is where they are right now. You gotta start taking steps toward the Stanley Cup."
As for the critics who say Marner has a history of coming up small in big spots, "How much of that is a Toronto thing more than a Marner thing?" says Costa.
"He’s not the only guy underachieving. He’s actually one of their better producers in the postseason. It feels like the issues in Toronto run really deep. He’s an Ontario kid playing for the Maple Leafs and the pressure eats that franchise alive. They haven’t won a Cup since '67. If he were on a different team, is there a chance that he can get out from under the stain and the stench that is the Maple Leafs?
"The history of hockey is actually littered with Mitch Marners, great players who get labeled 'soft' and 'finesse' until they end up winning and then we change the narrative. Steve Yzerman himself: you’re gonna have to get better defensively, you’re gonna have to sacrifice, you’re gonna have to become the gritty playoff winner."
In other words, says Costa, "would you be willing to roll the dice on Marner on a fresh situation, clean slate, with a younger, up-and-coming hockey team to give him a second chance, knowing he still has a second act in his career?"