Thanks to the new NHL roster tool available over PuckPedia, fans have been able to come up with trade ideas to find a new place for Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner.
The perceived availability of Marner in trade packages, as well as the publicly known friendship between Maple Leafs and Utah Hockey Club superstars Auston Matthews and Clayton Keller, had a PuckPedia user submitting a roster that flips Marner for the Utah winger among other pieces.
Maple Leafs get:
Clayton Keller
John Marino
Jack McBain
Nick Bjugstad
Hockey Club gets:
Mitchell Marner
Timothy Liljegren
Conor Timmins
David Kampf
Roni Hirvonen
Vyacheslav Peksa
W. Villeneuve
This transaction is far from a simple Marner-for-Keller, one-for-one trade. That said, and even though it involves as many as 11 players (some of them prospects), the truth is that Marner and Keller are the clear headliners from each franchise.
Keller is entering the fifth season of the eight-year, $57.2 million contract he signed with the Arizona Coyotes (now relocated to Utah) in September 2019. He has played 520 games for the Coyotes scoring 166 goals and assisting 252 for 418 total points.
Marner has appeared in 576 career games scoring 194 goals and assisting 445 for 639 total points. Toronto wouldn’t like to lose him for nothing when his contract runs out in the summer of 2025.
Consequently, this trade would help Toronto and more than anyone Marner find a fresh start elsewhere as the bonafide fresh and clear-cut superstar of a relocated franchise starting from the ground. Moreover, the transaction will also give Toronto a new offensive winger with pre-built chemistry with Matthews.
Furthermore, the trade would see Toronto and Utah swap blueliners in Timothy Liljegren and John Marino (the Hockey Club acquired him in a draft-day trade on June 29) respectively.
Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews’ Links to Clayton Keller
While the trade above works on its own and makes sense in a vacuum, the truth is that it comes on the heels of another chapter in the Matthews-Keller saga.
A recent social post on his Instagram stories by Matthews (h/t Chris Gosselin to Hockey Feed) including a picture of his dog and Keller’s on July 12 sparked “crazy” speculation about a potential trade.
The picture was shared X post by @adam_la2karis, and he described it as two dogs “Having a play date.
Back in June, Matthews and Keller attended UFC 303 and arrived together at the venue, adding more fuel to the rumors about a potential reunion.
Before that public appearance together outside of the NHL circuit, both Matthews and Keller shared time during the All-Star participating in the AS Game as part of the same team.
Matthews drafted Keller for his squad and the latter revealed he spends time with the Leafs center in the summer.
“We spend a lot of time in the summer hanging out, skating, and things like that, so it’s cool to be able to spend some time with him this weekend,” Keller said of Matthews on February 1.
Matthews said at the event that Keller is “an unbelievable player” and confirmed he “spends a lot of time with him in the summers.”
PHNX Sports asked Keller about the rumors linking him to the Maple Leafs even before the start of the 2023-24 season.
“Yeah, no, that’s not true. I’m just focused on myself and the team here, and I just love this group of guys. This is where I want to be right now,” Keller said on September 11, 2023.
Mitch Marner Named Best 2025 Undrafted Free Agent
Marner has a full no-move clause in his current contract with the Leafs. Consequently, he has full control of his short-term future in Toronto.
He’s under contract for one more year carrying a cap hit of $10.9 million, and he could reject any trade and play out his deal before becoming a free agent in 2025.
That is what Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet believes will happen. In turn, he listed Marner as the no. 1 upcoming UFA for the summer of 2025 in an article published on July 18.
What makes Dixon’s list interesting, however, is not the fact that it features Marner at the top but rather that he didn’t include other superstars (such as Sidney Crosby and Leon Draisaitl) in it because he expects them to sign contract extensions before July 1, 2025.
“As the summer wears on and we get further removed from the white-hot anger over Toronto’s latest playoff stumble, the reality of the Marner situation continues to take hold and the idea he’ll be with the Leafs on Day 1 of training camp — perhaps for the last time — becomes more and more likely,” Dixon wrote about Marner.
Finally, Dixon reasoned that could lead to a full season in Toronto ultimately ending in Marner hitting the open market.
“And, at that point, why wouldn’t the right winger play out the year ahead of becoming a UFA?” Dixon wondered.
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