Leafs cannot move on from Marner or Nylander so soon

Never short of any trade speculation in Toronto, Mitch Marner has joined William Nylander as possible forwards that could land the Leafs a big fish

If there’s one thing Leafs Nation loves, it’s a good trade rumour. On Tuesday, they got a dandy in the form of a proposed trade between the Leafs and the rival Montreal Canadiens.

Travis Yost of TSN wrote an article talking about the possibilities of a trade involving Shea Weber coming to Toronto, for either William Nylander or Mitch Marner.

I’ll leave that trade for others to speculate on. What I am focused on is this: Why can the Toronto Maple Leafs not have nice things?

We are talking about two of the best players the Leafs have to offer. More important, these two individuals signaled a change in culture for Toronto, in terms of drafting players.

Gone was the truculence era, and it’s drafting of players like Tyler Biggs and Frederik Gauthier, who were touted as guys that could fill bottom six holes down the road. With the Leafs taking Nylander eighth-overall in the 2014 NHL Draft, they made the move to take the best players available to build a steady core for their future.

They repeated this sentiment with Marner, who was knocked for being too small for the NHL, but put up 126 points with the London Knights during the 2014-15 season.

So far in his career, Nylander has 88 points over 125 career games, good for 0.70 points per game. Marner has 77 in 99 games for 0.78 points per game.

Last season, the trade speculation started with Nylander. The Leafs were in need of a top pairing defenceman to push them over the top. A popular rumour was Dougie Hamilton for the budding star winger.