Quoting: Celtics21
I dont see why Vegas trades Theodore for him
On a serious note. I believe Mitch Marner is a damn good player and I think he’s getting a bad wrap because Dubas and Treveling didn’t consider roster construction. That said, the roster construction is an issue.
Any team that acquires him is paying an extension in the 12M range. Is that Vegas’s MO? Not sure.
There is a difference between automatically saying no and considering a teams rationale for making a trade. I believe Ottawa would do it if they could pair him with Brady, but I’m not sure Ottawa has the pieces outside of Brady to make the deal work, Same wirh Utah and Keller.
The reality is Toronto is good enough where they won’t want a futures play because FA comes with inherent risk.
Its not easy to find an appropriate place for Marner even if he’d be a fit for a lot of teams if that makes sense
I'm no Vegas expert so I won't hazard a guess at why, but it's definitely a popular theory.
Marner is a fantastic player, he's a top-20 forward and top-10 wing IMO, definitely not trying to downplay that. Is he worth a team's top prospect, a 1st, and more? Yeah. But is that player, at $11M, with a NTC that'll be used to dictate exactly where he goes, who will be looking for a $12M+ extension, on a team that's going to be looking for similar excellent players to change up their roster construction and continue competing, going to fetch that return? No, his inherent value as a player doesn't match what the market is going to be willing to pay/what Toronto is going to be willing to accept.
Team rationale is critical when considering potential returns, and too many fans can't separate how they value a player with how an acquiring team would value the player. I just wish people took the time to understand the rationale, but instead we get the curt responses instead ("he won't waive", "that's not enough", etc. etc.).
I totally get what you're saying about finding an appropriate place even if he fits a lot of teams. Finding a situation he'd be willing to waive/extend for, while also getting an acceptable return for Toronto, and a package that isn't too much for the acquiring team to give up, is so tricky.