Edited May 4 at 4:52 p.m.
Here's the dilemma I see
Marner, Matthews, Willy, and JT are 4 nice players
Each brings something to the table that helps the TML
There's just 3 big problems
1. A salary cap, 2. how much they are making 3. they have not worked playoffs wise
Come next season
Matthews 13.25m
Nylander 11.5m
Tavares 11m
Marner 10.9m
Combined they are making around 46.65m
Cap is projected to be 87.7m
So by that TOR is putting 53.6% of its cap into 4 guys
Come next year TOR has around 21m and need to sign 2 top 4 Dman, a tandem goalie, some forwards, etc. And we have seen time and time again how tricky it is to build around these guys and make it work playoffs wise
And for those who go fire Keefe or Shanahan if we go down the list we have seen in the Matthews era
3 GMS (Lou, Dubas, Treeliving)
A HC (Babcock)
So many assistants from top to bottom etc
We also have seen them build around these 4 in every way possible slowly emptying the cupboard to try and go on a run. At some point got to question when is it time to try something else. Issue is rn Marner and the Boyz got NMC making it hard to move em
But if things dont go well this playoffs I do believe MLSE may tell Brad or Shanahan okay enough one has to go and due to circumstances Marner is the most likely. Could be JT to but he may be a pay to move guy NTU