Patrick Kane unlikely to return to Red Wings next season

[Zattaman]

Wings don't have high end forwards. He's a high end forward. He's a guy you get at the top of the draft. He was fourth. These guys are rarely available so when the Wings are drafting in the middle of the pack you get him when you can. It's a no brainer at the correct price. You have to be a brain dead conflagrated vehicle to believe otherwise.

Figure out a deal with the Leafs. They need D men. The Wings have D men. Moving those guys will lessen cap hit and the Leafs are so dumb they can be convinced. Leafs don't necessarily want young D men, they think they can still compete for a Cup. Time for Y to do creative GM shite.

Toronto has 4 high end forwards. How's that working for them?

No, we don't have a Marner or McDavid. But, I like the direction our D is going. Seider + Edvinsson is already much better than what Toronto has. THAT'S where the money needs to go to.

If Cossa or Augustine turn into a bona fide stars, we won't need a Marner. Goals will come if you play the right way and win puck battles.

[DocBrown]

Toronto's top 4 forwards make up the vast majority of their cap. How does that resemble in any way the Wings situation? They played Holl 20 minutes last year. It is a terribly managed franchise. They manage to lose despite talent because they neglected an entire part of their roster. Maybe you should start with that.

[Zattaman]

Marner is soft and not a playoff player, I don’t see Yzerman taking him unless the wings give up very little and leafs retain 75% of his salary. He proved he’s weak on Saturday.

I agree.

Now, maybe there's some lingering injury issue that makes him so ineffective right now.

But, I watched him in a couple of games against Boston and I had the exact same thought as Slapper -- Marner is not a playoff player! He's soft. He's weak. He's the opposite of Yzerman/Zetterberg/dare-I-say Marchand. These guys get better as the game gets tougher. Marner ain't it.

Even Matthews looks like he wants to win. Marner right now reminds me of Malreau when we played him in the playoffs and Datsyuk ate him alive. Granted, we lost that series, but Marleau caught a lot of flak in the media for being soft. And, at the end of the day, despite all the points in the regular season, Malreau has never won anything.

Marner's game is similar to Patrick Kane imo. They are pass first perimeter players. His PPG in the playoffs is similar to Kane at almost a point per game and better than Datsyuk. Datsyuk was obviously way better defensively and could deal with physical play way better but i think Marner is better defensively than Kane is/was. There are a a shit load of players on their roster that aren't producing yet Marner is the first to be blamed.

I don't like the fact Marner is always looking at milking a team for everything he can, even if it means they can't have decent depth to win but his playoff performance wouldn't matter to me at this point...close to a PPG isn't bad and for the Wings, they need to make the playoffs for that to even matter.

Valid point regarding his defense. Still, in the playoffs:

Kane = .38 goals per game
Datsyuk = .27 goals per game
Marner = .20 goals per game

In the playoffs, you can't just be a playmaker... not when you make 11M a year.

I think we need to continue to solidify our D and G and worry less about trying to lure an expensive forward who's going to disappear when it matters the most.

[Pop Zeus]

[Fil Zaronek]

He often makes a plays while falling or being knocked down in traffic. He is a tremendous talent but he isn't worth $11M of cap space.




This is what they are speaking of and it is pathetic.

[Barbrady]

The best part of all of this Mitch Marner talk is, the Leafs and Leaf fandom will blame him, they will let him walk and "toughen up" their roster, and they will still get ousted in the first round next year.