The Philadelphia Flyers and the Toronto Maple Leafs are two teams at opposite ends of the NHL spectrum. The Maple Leafs are a team that, conceivably, has too much talent up top, while the Flyers have very little. A Mitchell Marner trade could make sense for both sides, but it’s not something the Flyers should seriously consider.
Marner, 27, has established himself as one of the NHL’s premier forwards, scoring no fewer than 85 points in each of the last three seasons. He’s also had three 90-point seasons during his time with the Maple Leafs.
Despite all his regular season successes, Marner has a reputation amongst the hockey community for being an inconsistent playoff performer. This is a title that is earned, not given. And it’s one of several reasons why the Flyers should pass on Marner.
Marner has three postseason campaigns in which he produced a point per game or better offensively, but he also has four in which he scored one goal or fewer. That’s not good enough to be marketed as a superstar player on a team that would otherwise be absent of co-stars like Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
There’s no question that the Flyers desperately need a player of Marner’s caliber to truly make noise in the regular season and, eventually, the Stanley Cup playoffs. Matvei Michkov will give them that eventually.
The issue is that Marner just turned 27, while Michkov is only 19 years old and hasn’t immigrated to North America yet.
Further to that point, Marner already has a $10.903 million AAV, which will only increase once he inevitably signs a new contract, be it with the Flyers, Maple Leafs, or another team. Couple that with the fact that the Markham, Ontario native only has one year left on his current deal, and the Flyers would be tasked with making a monster commitment after a Marner trade in a very short period of time.
The Flyers already have another 27-year-old in Travis Konecny up for a lucrative contract extension as early as July 1, and by executing a Marner trade, they’d have two. Do the Flyers really have a foundation already in place to take advantage of the prime years of these two players?
No, they don’t. Otherwise, they would have been a playoff team this season.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere has already reiterated his steadfast commitment to the rebuild without cheating or taking shortcuts. A Marner trade now would be like buying a Ferrari without knowing how to drive stick.
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