TSN insider Darren Dreger discusses Marner and Matthews’ future in Toronto

Change is in the air in Toronto.

MLSE announced this week that the Toronto Maple Leafs have parted ways with Brendan Shanahan, as a roster shakeup is almost certainly looming this summer. On Friday, TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger stopped by Leafs Morning Take to wrap up the week with all the latest on the changing of the guards in Toronto.

Chief on everyone’s mind going into the weekend has been the Shanahan split, after he led the team for over a decade. And while Friday’s press conference with MLSE CEO Keith Pelley covered what’s next for the Leafs, there have been questions about what’s coming for the former Toronto executive. And while it’s been rumoured he may take on a role with the New York Islanders, Dreger said he’s heard otherwise.

“It was described to me by someone close as a long-shot,” said Dreger, on Shanahan joining the Islanders. While he was unsure of the reason, he said it could come down to factors of needing a break from hockey after 11 years with the Leafs, wanting to spend more time with family, or looking for a market that will offer him more autonomy, with the Islanders already naming their new GM Friday in Mathieu Darche.

Nevertheless, Dreger did confirm he’s been told that “Shanahan most definitely wants to work again,” though what form that will take is still to be determined.

Meanwhile, Mitch Marner continues to be a big question mark headed into the offseason, as the 28-year-old winger prepares to hit free agency on July 1st. Asked bluntly if Marner has played his last game as a Toronto Maple Leaf, Dreger said it’s clear there’s a sense that change is coming from both the team and player’s standpoint.

“It feels to me he has, for a lot of different reasons,” Dreger said. “I think we’ve all embraced the reality that change is needed … and when a player has earned his right to unrestricted free agency, why wouldn’t you look at what your possibilities are? As hard as Marner and company have tried to get over the hump in Toronto, it may never happen.”

With that in mind, speculation has run rampant on which teams may be interested, with some cynical Toronto fans still upset with Marner’s playoff woes and questioning how much he could get paid somewhere else. But regardless of his postseason problems, his value is still quite high, which will attract bidders from East to West this summer, alongside some other top UFAs.

“What we know is that the interest in Marner, in Sam Bennett, in Tavares if he gets there, is going to be vast,” Dreger said. “It’s going to be league-wide, regardless of what the dollar amount is.”

The growing sense seems to be that Tavares may re-sign in Toronto this summer, and while some fans want to see the Florida Panthers’ Bennett head north, Dreger said he’s not sure it’ll happen.

“I’m not convinced Sam Bennett wants to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs,” he said. “And that’s not because he looks at all the nonsense that goes around this market, I’m not saying that. It’s just this guy is gonna have the pick of the litter.”

On the matter of change, it seems for some Leafs fans almost no player is immune to a shakeup, including captain Auston Matthews, who had one of his more disappointing years, as he dealt with an undisclosed lingering injury. Dreger shut that one down as well, saying the only way he sees it happening is if Matthews himself were to ask for it, which does seem pretty unlikely.

“Come on, this guy is an absolute stud, he’s a superstar,” Dreger said. “I feel like for it to happen with Matthews at any point in the foreseeable future, that would be on him … I don’t believe that’s even remotely a possibility.”

Amidst the continuing churn of the rumour mill, one thing is for certain. Change is inevitable, already in the process, and ready to be embraced by Toronto’s fan base now more than ever.