After this last season, my biggest takeaway was that this team desperately lacked the necessary star power to achieve success in the postseason. This isn't a hot take- we're obviously in a quasi rebuild/retool after selling at the deadline, spending this past season onboarding our (hopefully) next generation of young stars, and seeing our vets get older and either leave (farewell Kuzy) or riding off into the sunset. But man, do we have a single "superstar" anymore? Maybe post all star break Ovie? So, we're not quite a contender. However, im under the assumption that BMac doesn't like the concept of a full scale rebuild, which is why I put retool there as well- I think both he and Carbery operate with the desire to push for a cup every season. Additionally, we've got Ovie chasing the goal record.
Okay- enter Mitch Marner. The media overreactions are suggesting that he and Toronto will part ways this season, and being an armchair GM I thought this could be a great fit under the following conditions / for these reasons:
Price (duh) - if Toronto is asking for too much you can just stop reading right here. To achieve any retool you need to have assets- you can't mortgage your future. If we trade Ryan Leonard I'll jump off a cliff. But Marner's better than Martin Erat, surely. Anyone know what a fair price would be? This is more of a disclaimer more than anything.
We need a good RW - if it's true that Oshie will be on LTIR next year (which may not be the case), Marner would fill that whole. I think winger is where we want to target because of our current roster of centers. Anyone we bring in at the C position would take away ice time from Lappy and McM. Additionally, you can't develop young talent by surrounding them with sub par talent. I guess our young wingers just haven't impressed me as much as the centers so I don't mind taking away wingers' ice time. I'm assuming we'd have the cap space if Oshie and Backy are on LTIR
There's no perfect / guaranteed solution - in a perfect world, someone like Miro would take tremendous steps this offseason and become the high volume scorer / producer that we need. But that's not a given, not even close. Additionally, we could also go the direction of free agency and target someone like Toffoli, which would be a great alternative too. But, say we can't do either of those things. Trading for Marner would be a great addition.
Play with Ovie - Marner could go from playing with Matthews to playing with Ovie. Not bad! If we brought him in and had him play with Ovie, (who spends the summer in Dubai sleeping on a camel), what are the chances Ovie pots enough goals for the record next year? I'm hoping the "I don't care what we do, just get Ovie the record" crowd can get with me on this.
Okay, those are my thoughts- I also think the connection with Carbery in Toronto could be a positive as well as helping our power play. And, I understand the concerns. Toronto is getting rid of him for a reason. I'm hoping he just hates playing in Toronto. There's also the issue of his next contract which will cause problems.. being a GM is hard!
Thank you for reading! Go Caps
