Loyalty, nostalgia, and hope hold back Maple Leafs: Leaflets

There’s going to be a lot of Mitch Marner content thrown in your face this week and honestly, it’s a big story. And as much as even those of us writing about it would rather be doing something else, it’s what is going to be talked about until the final buzzer next Friday. Maybe it’s even a nice distraction from the fact that the Leafs are fighting for their playoff lives right now.

Before jumping into different but possibly equally trivial topics, I just want to spend my full two cents on the topic of booing Mitch Marner. If you were unhappy with how Marner left, never liked his attitude, and were disappointed in his playoff effort, go ahead and boo him. If you see Marner as a local GTA kid who put up amazing offensive numbers for his hometown team while delivering plays that few players have ever been able to execute, and miss everything that he brought to the team right up to the ridiculous hats, by all means applaud him and let him know he was missed. Marner was always divisive and gatekeeping how fans should react to his return is tiring at best. You do you and skip the radio pundit lectures. That was two cents worth. Here are some other opinions:

Say no to Luke Schenn

Third time does not need to be the charm for Luke Schenn in Toronto. And maybe it’s because it’s Marner Week and the idea of former Leaf homecomings has less appeal than ever but the connections to the Leafs as a result of Schenn wanting out of Winnipeg need to be met with the reality that a player who can’t crack the 31st-placed team’s lineup might not be the ideal partner for Morgan Rielly.

Yes, they had some success in the past, when both were younger and Rielly was faster and was a defenceman that the Leafs should be building their blueline around. Now the circumstances are very different and while the odds of Rielly moving by the trade deadline are unlikely, it is safe to say that he is being held in different regard and time hasn’t been kind to either player.

In contrast to that opinion, it shouldn’t cost much to acquire Schenn. The narrative on Schenn will switch to playing playoff hockey and the fact that he has Stanley Cup success on his resume. His $2.75M cap hit even at 50% retained should make him a tough sell and the Jets will be lucky to get what they can for him. If the Leafs cap situation at the 11th hour on the trade deadline aligns with this and Winnipeg is interested in a depth AHLer return, maybe stars can align.

Unless that happens, just remember, the Leafs still have no shortage of depth defencemen who can chip the puck off the glass and out. They need to find defencemen that belong in their top four, and ideally a bit younger than Rielly or Schenn.

Present vs. Future value for Bobby McMann

There is a lot of bias in these remarks but the purpose of Leaflets is to largely be driven by opinion. And as such, as good as Bobby McMann has been for the Maple Leafs, cashing out on a likely 20+ goal scoring unrestricted free agent at a low cap makes the most sense for the Leafs regardless of whether or not they are pushing for the playoffs or not.

I like McMann. He’s been one of the most pleasant surprises for the Maple Leafs in the past few years but there are some difficult truths. The first is that McMann is older than most people think he is. He’ll be 30 at the start of next season and while he’ll likely still be able to deliver for a couple more seasons, hockey players typically don’t age like fine wine.

The second is that everyone loves Bobby McMann at $1.35M but when he’s asking for $3-4M AAV on his next deal, what will people think of the dry spells, inconsistent place in the lineup, and the impacts of aging potentially leading to a decline in production in the future? Cash out now and let him leave on good terms.

While McMann is not Zach Hyman, James van Riemsdyk, Jake Gardiner, or any of the Dubas era “own rentals” that stuck around for first round playoff exits, he still does represent an opportunity for the Leafs to change a broken policy. Sell on McMann and look around the league at the teams that want less for a different veteran forward on an expiring contract.

At some point asset management and risk mitigation needs to replace loyalty in the Leafs’ lexicon.

Same thing but slightly different re: Laughton

Rumour has it that the Leafs are looking to re-sign Scott Laughton.

If there isn’t at least one expensive fourth liner from the Leafs in your “remembering some guys” database that confirms that this is a bad idea, welcome to your first day of following the Leafs. You don’t need to look past their current roster and see Calle Jarnkrok and Dakota Joshua as examples of this, but by all means go back to the beginning of the year and remember David Kampf as well. If you want to get historical about it, Jay McClement, Matt Martin, Colton Orr, Wayne Simmonds, and Leo Komarov are examples of salary cap era misses when it comes to overpaid bottom six players who were either signed or re-signed at premium. This is before even discussing signing Clarkson for toughness or bringing in Dave Bolland to play higher up in the lineup than he was capable of playing.

Laughton hasn’t been bad as a fourth line centre but the Leafs never needed a fourth line centre and between what Steven Lorentz can do in that role and what Jacob Quillan has looked like when called upon, Laughton staying with the Leafs past the trade deadline seems like a misstep let alone the risk of overpaying Laughton on a new contract.

There’s also the narrative that I subscribe to and that is the Leafs could benefit from a reset and fresh start in 2026-27 and one of the easiest ways of doing that is taking advantage of unrestricted free agents departing for assets.

Laughton is good but he’s not so good that he’ll be critical to the Maple Leafs making the playoffs or not. While he’s talented enough to have a moment late in the season or the playoffs, he will not be a deciding factor in a playoff series or late season run.

Recouping assets makes more sense at the moment and unless the Leafs find themselves in a very different situation than they are presenting in come trade deadline time, keeping Laughton this season shouldn’t be part of the plan let alone committing to the soon to be 32-year-old for a multiyear deal starting next season.