Has a weird way of showing it.
Not really. Nobody knows exactly what happened and where things stand. But we can all have our theories.
Mine is that yes, he wanted the big payday. Last summer, he knew the cap would be rising, and he knew that when Matty's deal finishes up in a few years, he would be in line to get $15m, $16M, who knows, if 69 goals became the standard, which would make a $13M deal look shabby for the back half of the deal when Marner is arguably as important as Matty. So yeah, he wanted $14M, which would put him ahead of Matty for a few years as the top paid guy in TO. And that would be awkward to be stuck negotiating mid season. Instead, let the season run, put up some monster points, and finally break through in the playoffs. Then no ask is too big to entertain, and they'd give him $14M to keep everything going smoothly off the heels of new success. And there's nothing more that Mitch wants other than to be paid like a star, be a Leaf for life, and win a Cup here.
He's not telling this to management, of course. He wants to keep the $14M ask under wraps for another year. TO isn't going anywhere and all his buddies and family are there. But Tre is growing concerned as the season goes - why won't he extend? So the Rantanen opportunity arises and he approaches him and says hey, what's up - if you're not planning to extend, then let us trade you, or tell us you want to extend. Marner said no to the trade and surely gave some indication about loving it in Toronto and wanted to stay. Okay. And things were looking good after the Ottawa win and halfway through the Florida series, which maybe we were going to pull out in game 7. And then we didn't, and all the focus went squarely on the guy who was a non-entity in those final games by his usual regular season standards (but to be fair, still had 13 points).
So now the shitstorm of Toronto media hits, and what is or isn't going to happen being discussed 24/7. Tre has his press conference where he bluntly says he's not going to guarantee that Marner and Tavares get offers. This is a dagger for Mitch to hear, even if he wants to chalk it up to posturing for upcoming negotiations (Tavares meanwhile is willing to cut to stay and has been given certain assurances). Marner is feeling the heat of the media pressure since game 7, and now is feeling the team abandon him publicly, so yeah, he's going to feel and maybe even say certain things to make it look like he's not necessarily wedded to being a Leaf. But he is, and as the anger and betrayal washes away over the coming days and weeks, he's going to look at all these limited shit options out there with other teams - most of which won't give him his $14m and probably not his $13M - and he'll burn over not taking the rumored $13.5m that was on the table. And he'll make moves to try to get it back, by talking to other teams and waiting to see what the Leafs do.
Tre probably has moved on and wants to change the DNA of the team in the only way he reasonably can. This guy isn't trading Nylander when he doesn't have to, or entertaining moving on from an injured Matty. Tavares provides immense value and will stay for a fraction of his current cost and fair market value. So obviously Marner is the only realistically moveable chess piece. But Tre has shown he's conservative and frankly not stupid, so he's not going to just fill up the space with trash if it turns out Bennett, Ekblad, Marchand, etc., don't even make it to market. If he can't do better, and if Marner hasn't gotten fed up and signed with another team out of spite (which he won't right out of the gate), then Tre will use his leverage to push Marner's price down, and maybe they can compromise on something. If they can, Tre overhauls half of the forwards we have (bye Kampf, Jarn, Reaves, Domi, Robertson, Holmberg, MaxPac, and maybe even Laughton) and proclaims the DNA changed with the depth totally reshaped behind the big 5, with Cowan added to spark excitement.
That's the situation, and how it plays out.
