The Toronto Maple Leafs and first round playoff exits go together like peanut butter and jelly. One of the biggest hockey markets, who has seen the second round of the playoffs just once since 2004, suffered yet another loss in game seven of the first round, the seventh time in the last eight years the Leafs got booted in a win-or-go-home opening round playoff game.
Over their last few years of early playoff eliminations, the Leafs front office decided that running it back with the exact same group with only a few minor depth changes will be the magic key to carry them to the Cup. And when that inevitably backfires, they just try it again.
But during their end-of-season presser, GM Brad Treliving indicated that every option is on the table heading into the offseason. It begs the question as to whether or not the Leafs will finally look to make changes to the current team, especially the core four forwards?
It has led to rumors that 27-year-old Mitch Marner may be on the trade block. He posted 85 points in 69 games during the 2023-24 campaign and has 639 points in 576 career games. Marner has one season left on his current contract at a $10.9 million cap hit and is an unrestricted free agent in 2025. Any trade of this caliber would more than likely come with an extension as part of the deal.
In a perfect world, the Flyers and Maple Leafs are actually decent trading partners. The Leafs need sturdy depth and the Flyers need star power. Considering Marner’s cap hit is over $10 million, there’s quite a bit of natural wiggle room for a multi-piece return for the Leafs.
So how does one even go about acquiring one of the brightest stars in the league today? Well the first hurdle is that Marner has a full NMC, so he’s have to OK any deal, and leaving his hometown team where he’s a self-described “god” may not be the easiest thing to do. But with that UFA status looming, his tenure in Toronto may be coming to an end sooner rather than later anyway.
But the Flyers may have a secret weapon up their sleeve that could make coming to Philly a more palpable decision.
They’ve got a potential new toy on the horizon as 19-year-old top prospect Matvei Michkov may be making the jump to North America to join the Flyers as early as next season. As the rumors regarding the early arrival of Matvei Michkov pick up steam, overhauling the pitiful offense the Flyers currently possess should be high on the priority list, and there are few better players in the league that would be better to tandem with Michkov than an elite playmaker like Marner.
Marner brings the kind of offensive creativity and explosive speed the Flyers desperately lack. It’s a trade that may not be pretty for the Flyers, but at the end of the day, addresses a huge area of need, which simply comes down to a lack of star power. Even if Marner doesn’t directly replicate his 90-plus point pace without Matthews (and Matthews may struggle to replicate his 70-goal pace without Marner), he possesses more raw skill than any of the current players on the roster by a country mile.
It’s also worth nothing that 27 of Marner’s 85 points this season came on the power play, while the Flyers scored a total of 31 power play goals. Adding even one dynamic piece to the equation like Marner could help drag the Flyers out of the basement of the league’s power play rankings where they’ve been for three consecutive years.
“But he’s soft in the playoffs” I hear you yell at your screens. Well the Flyers haven’t made the playoffs in four years and their “best” player Travis Konecny has one goal and eight points in 22 career playoff games. Marner has 11 goals and 50 points in 57 career playoff games. Maybe he’s not the most grizzled postseason performer, but let’s burn that bridge when they get there. Hard to cast stones about the playoffs when the Flyers don’t even make it that far in the first place.
And for the defense-first Tortorella disciples, Marner has been a consistent Selke candidate for much of his career. He finished third in 2022-23, has finished in the top 10 twice, and top 16 four times. He landed 17th in 2024-25. The only Flyers represented in the Selke voting this season were Tyson Foerster and Scott Laughton, who finished tied for 37th with a single fifth place vote each.
Plain and simple, if Michkov shows up early, the Flyers need to get serious about adding talent quickly. They lost their only in-house potential star in Cutter Gauthier, so the front office needs to be proactive from the outside. Marner is easily the best name to emerge from the 2024 offseason rumors, and even though he won’t fill that elusive center role the Flyers need, and the petty arguments from a scared-of-change fanbase to pacify themselves shouldn’t be enough for the organization to not throw their hat in the ring.
so can Danny Briere craft the biggest trade the organization has seen in 15 years? Time will tell, but if Marner is actually on the trade block, there’s not good reason the Flyers shouldn’t put their best foot forward to acquire the star forward.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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