Mitch Marner Finally Gets To Play For A Real Hockey City, Gets Traded To Vegas And Immediately Signs An 8-Year, $96 Million Contract

Claus Andersen. Getty Images.

It was a pretty foregone conclusion that Mitch Marner had played his final game for the Toronto Maple Leafs when they lost game 7 to Florida. You could tell from the emotion he had after the game. And you could tell even more from the fact that he had cancelled his annual charity event in Toronto this summer. Everybody knew that the Leafs' core was finally getting broken up, and that Mitch Marner would be heading to free agency. 

The only issue is that he never actually hit free agency. He was scooped up about 17 hours before free agency actually opens up via a sign and trade with Vegas. 

I'll be honest here--I'll never understand how "sign-and-trades" aren't tampering. Clearly Mitch Marner and Vegas had to agree to this number before he was traded. So clearly his agent has been talking with Vegas to make this happen while he's still technically a member of the Maple Leafs. I guess since Toronto will be getting some compensation back from Vegas, they're obviously not going to make an issue out of it. 

But what a win for everybody involved here. Toronto is the smallest winner of the trade, but at least they're not losing one of the faces of their franchise for absolutely nothing tomorrow afternoon. I haven't seen what the trade package heading back to Toronto is, but it's better than zilch. 

It's a great win for Mitch Marner. Guy gets to leave that cesspool of Toronto and head to Vegas. It's a town that loves the Golden Knights, but they're not dangerously obsessed about them. They like hockey in Vegas because it's fun. They aren't going to send death threats to your wife because you had a bad game. Plus he gets $96 million to help out with the move. 

And finally, it's a massive win for the Vegas Golden Knights. This is a team full of guys who have won a Cup before. A team full of guys who know how to win in the playoffs, and know what it takes to get the job done. I know Mitch Marner has had his struggles in the playoffs, but the core in Toronto was completely lost every time April and May rolled around. They were a rudderless boat relying on 5 guys who don't know how to win to lead the way. Marner doesn't have to be one of those guys now. They have Mark Stone and Jack Eichel. They have Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore. Vegas doesn't need Mitch Marner to be a guy who leads them to a Stanley Cup. They just need him to be a guy who helps them win another. 

Since the 2021 season, there are only 6 guys in hockey who have scored more points than Mitch Marner. You have McDavid and Draisaitl in Edmonton. MacKinnon, Panarin, Rantanen, and David Pastrnak. In his last 357 games, Mitch Marner has scored 450 points. The playoffs--and game 7's in particular--might be a different story. But you can't deny the fact that Mitch Marner is an absolute weapon. 

The Stars are loaded. The Oilers are always going to be in the mix as long as 97 and 29 are there. Vegas needed to add an extra weapon to the artillery in order to keep up, and they just added the best available missile on the market. And they were able to get him for an extra year on that contract since he signed for 8-years with Toronto first before the deal was made. I doubt he'll be worth $12 million in that final year of the deal when he's 36-years-old. But the name of the game is having guys locked in long term while the cap keeps climbing. 

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@JordieBarstool