Kyle Dubas: Marner trade not an avenue Leafs have 'remotely explored'
Save for the Switzerland threat, it’s been, we’ll say, quiet-ish on the Mitch Marner front over the past month. As a soft launch to the season, however, it’s only right that we receive an update on the other side of Labour Day.
Kyle Dubas recently made the rounds with a few of the heavy hitters in the national media, and offered updates on the negotiation with the star winger.
Included in that, Dubas shot down the idea that the current and seemingly contentious negotiation process has pushed Maple Leafs management toward potentially selling the asset.
“That’s not a real avenue that we’ve even remotely explored,” Dubas told Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. “It’s our full intention that Mitch Marner will be a Toronto Maple Leaf for a very long time and that’s everything we’re working towards.’’
[Join or create a 2019 Yahoo Fantasy Football league for free today]
Dubas also caught up with TSN’s Bob McKenzie, and told him that the Leafs’ “hope and goal” is to have Marner in St. John’s, Nfld., when training camp opens in 10 days, and that he’s optimistic that will happen.
Granted, none of this is really anything new. Dubas hasn’t strayed far from his message throughout the process, dating back as early to when the club signed John Tavares. He maintained then that the club “can” and “will” retain Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
Still, it seems important to hear after a summer spent pointing fingers at just about everyone who can possibly be assigned blame for the prolonged negotiation process.
Despite the lack of real updates, there have been contracts bandied about, and the deal du jour seems to be a potential three-year deal that could keep costs below $10 million in the short term for the Leafs while setting Marner up to break the bank once he crosses his bridge.
The idea seems to make sense on all levels — at least for those who never thought it should be all that complicated anyway.
More NHL coverage on Yahoo Sports
