With eight Toronto Maple Leafs and head coach Mike Babcock participating for their respective countries in the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, the most compelling story of the club’s training camp and exhibition season later this month may be tracking the progress of Mitch Marner.
The focus on the 19-year-old forward will center on whether he is physically ready to play top-six minutes in the NHL this season and whether the alternative (another year with the London Knights) would not be a challenge after scoring 100+ points in the OHL the last two years.
Based on the dominance shown by the 2015 fourth overall pick last season (winning the OHL, CHL, OHL Playoff and Memorial Cup MVP), it is assumed that Marner will get at least the nine games allowable under the current collective bargaining agreement before the first year of his entry-level contract kicks in.
Mitch Marner racing back on defence and sprawling out to block a shot is the best thing I've seen at summer skate so far
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) September 7, 2016
Toronto have nine games scheduled in the opening month of the season, making the November 1st match with Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers the tentative line of demarcation for the Thornhill, ON native, but as with William Nylander at the end of last season, nine may not be the magic number for Marner.
The Leafs call up of Nylander after the trade deadline last February was expected, since Toronto management saw value in giving the young forward a taste of the NHL, but many observers were puzzled by the fact that the 2014 top pick stayed until the end of the regular season, playing 22 games and using up a year of his three-year deal.
The calculation may have been to use up the first year to give Nylander less of a case to ask for a higher salary or long term extension when negotiating his new deal in two years, but it also prevented Nylander, Marner and 2016 top pick Auston Matthews from becoming restricted free agents in the summer of 2019.
If Marner does make the club, the plan may be to give the young winger a longer look until December and loan him to Team Canada for the 2017 IIHF World Junior in Toronto and Montreal.
According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, if a player plays in 40 games in his first season, it counts as an accrued year of service and starts the clock towards the seven years required to become an unrestricted free agent.
Even though Nylander played 22 games last season and burned a year on his entry-level, he will not qualify for unrestricted free agency until 2023 (if he plays more than 40 games this season).
The Leafs do not pass the 40 game mark until early January and that may when GM Lou Lamoriello and head coach Mike Babcock will have to decide whether the best course of action is for Marner to return to the Leafs for the remainder of the season.
If Marner stays with Toronto, it would start the clock on his free agency, but he could be loaned to the Marlies for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
If after the WJC, he heads back to the Knights for another run at a Memorial Cup, the clock would not start until next season, but Marner would not be free to go to the AHL affiliate on an amateur tryout contract until after London has been eliminated.
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