'I Can't Get Wrapped Up In The Noise': Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving Will Not Address Daily Speculation Over Mitch Marner's Future
LAS VEGAS — Hardly a day goes by where there isn't some sort of report about Mitch Marner and his future with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
But when asked by reporters on Wednesday if he'd try to extend his forward when July 1st hit, Treliving didn't want to address it.
"I'm not going to speculate on anything," Treliving said. "We said it at the end of the year that, you know, we weren't happy with how the year ended. That's not (on) Mitch. You know, the focus isn't on Mitch. As an organization, as a team, we felt we should have gone further than we did."
Treliving went on. to emphasize the immense talent of his player who finished this past season with 26 goals and 59 assists in 69 regular season games, but didn't tip his hand either way on if he was going to extend him, trade him, or stand pat.
It's a sharp contrast from players like Auston Matthews and William Nylander. When both players were coming up on their windows to extend, Treliving openly admitted that it was a priority to lock both players down.
But after another disappointing season that ended with a first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Boston Bruins, Treliving is keeping his options open.
He openly admitted that adding defence is his top priority ahead of free agency. Moving Mitch Marner's $10.9 million commitment certainly could go a long way to opening up more room. But Marner, who is in the final year of his contract and holds all the cards with a full no-movement clause in his contract, really can dictate the terms here.
Treliving says he hasn't had dialogue with Marner when reports come up and is communicating with his players throughout the offseason in the way he always does.
"What I can't do is every time that there's — nothing personal against your guys' side of the business — but sometimes there are reports out there and there are rumors and especially this time of year. I get it. It's people are it's news, right? We can't react to all the noise, right? You can't" Treliving said. "Other than that, Mitch knows what I feel about him as a player and you know, in this line of work that we're in."
Treliving was very cautious in how he approached questions about Marner. But what he didn't do was openly endorse wanting to keep him around for next season, either. Leaving the door open to everything.
"I'm not going to speculate. I didn't see what's reported today. I'm sure there'll be reports tomorrow. But I'm not going to get into all that," Treliving insisted. "I'm just going to come back to what I said. Great player. We're just going to continue along to try and make our team better.
"I can't get wrapped up in the noise."
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