Connor McDavid (97) has a year left on his deal with the Edmonton Oilers, but said he wouldn’t hurry to sign an extension this summer.Perry Nelson/Reuters
Just like every other year, the Leafs’ mandate this summer was change.
“There’s some DNA that has to change,” Toronto GM Brad Treliving said in one of his many autopsies over the last few weeks.
Everyone listening focused in on the “DNA” in that sentence. As it turns out, they should have been concentrating on the “some.”
After a great deal of talk, two things have changed about the Leafs. They fired the president, and let their on-paper best player dictate the terms of his release. I suppose that is a swap of DNA — two genomes worth.
However, in the terms people took Treliving to mean, the opposite has happened. The Leafs are signing all the same guys who’ve blown it for the last few years.
This is the only club in hockey who could re-up a promising soon-to-be fourth-year player (Matthew Knies) for the same annual salary the Stanley Cup champions just gave a Conn Smythe winner in his prime (Sam Bennett) and expect applause.
Mitch Marner had to go. There’s no faulting the Leafs on that one. Whatever it was that was off about the mix in Toronto, he was a main ingredient.
But if the goal here was major change, others had to go as well. Having missed seven times, why was John Tavares given four more kicks at the can? I have a terrible feeling it was because Tavares told everyone who’d listen that he wanted to stay and the Leafs felt too embarrassed to say ‘No’ to him.
What you’ve got right now is the same Leafs without Marner, which is unlikely to be better than the team they had with him. It’s still all of the same guys with the same blasé attitude.
This isn’t progress. It’s paralysis.
If McDavid were able to win in Toronto, bringing the city its first Stanley Cup since 1967, it would put him in the conversation with the game’s all-time greats.Steph Chambers/Getty Images
There’s only one way this plan (if that’s what it is) makes sense — Connor McDavid.
McDavid has one year left on his Oilers’ deal. Everyone expects him to re-sign, but given a recent chance to commit himself to the cause, McDavid checked his swing.
“Ultimately, I still need to do what’s best for me and my family,” he said.
Let’s remember that when given similar chances to kiss the badge, Marner used to practically make out with it. He was never, ever leaving, except for the fact that he always was.
McDavid could be playing the same sort of game, but why? All it does is encourage people to keep asking him about it, which he will hate. The only way playing it coy makes sense is if he doesn’t want to be accused later of leading Edmontonians on.
The Leafs’ ‘plan’ only makes sense if they have some inside dope in this regard. Have sneaky overtures been made? Nothing solid, just a little wink-wink-nudge-nudge.
It struck me as odd that the Leafs’ freaked out when it began to seem like their sign-and-trade for Marner to Vegas might not work out. Through proxies, they started tossing the word “tampering” around.
Toronto had known Marner and Vegas wanted to get together for ages. Only a naif would think no back-channels had been opened. Could the Leafs have been projecting a bit? Feeling a little guilty?
Determining McDavid’s next team won’t be a money issue. It’s a question of narrative. Who can sell McDavid on the idea that they are best able to put him on hockey’s Rushmore?
He’s not there now. He’s not even close. He’s currently leading the Marcel Dionne category of players — huge talent, no titles.
One win puts him into the Mike Bossy tier. Maybe. One title in Edmonton doesn’t even get him into that city’s top two.
But one title in Toronto? That is a different factory trawler of fish. If McDavid comes home and breaks North American sports’ most infamous curse, he’s automatically up there with Gretzky, Orr & Co. He didn’t just win. He changed the game.
That’s the story I’d be telling if I was Treliving. It’s the same story the Leafs told Mike Babcock when he’d already won everything there was to win, and was looking around for a soft landing spot. Babcock chose the hard way, and it destroyed him. That only makes it more alluring to the next guy.
Again — this only makes sense if you think you know McDavid is interested. Taking a wild shot and hoping for the best is a waste of two years. Just look at how the Toronto Raptors’ five-year plan floundered on the idea that Giannis Antetokounmpo would choose them.
If that condition of knowing is met, the Leafs have to forgo another star now. You spend the money you would have given Marner next year on some second-tier replacement, and plan your finances so that you’re flush again next summer.
This would also allow the Leafs to see if Marner really was the problem. Maybe it’s as simple as adding by subtracting, and letting the other eight-figure earners work for their cheques. There’s some value in finding out one way or the other.
A lot would depend on the Leafs getting at least a little better next year. Enough to convince McDavid that he is the only missing piece.
They’d also need the Oilers to get at least a bit worse. That could be enough to convince McDavid that he’s given his 20s to the wrong franchise, and can’t risk doing the same thing with his 30s.
This also presumes that McDavid has grown to enjoy nightly hand-to-hand combat with the media. He’s never seemed like much of a front-of-camera guy. Has he become one? Or is he willing to put up with it? Because with the Leafs, it will never stop.
If McDavid were to come to Toronto and fail, he would have failed spectacularly. That said, no one would ever be able to say he played it safe. Maybe that’s another inducement.
A lot of known as well as unknown unknowns here. But if it is what the Leafs are trying to do, and if Treliving can pull it off, it would be one of the great raids in sports history.