Tip of the Tower
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Toronto Maple Leafs: Darren Ferris kicks into action next phase of off-season plan

By Austin Owens

Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates with the puck in the second period of a game against the Boston Bruins in Game Two of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates with the puck in the second period of a game against the Boston Bruins in Game Two of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /
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Mitch Marner is headed to Switzerland…maybe. The winger could head there if a new deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs is not reached.

We’ve held off for a long while on biting on the latest news to come from the Mitch Marner camp regarding the contract negotiations with the Toronto Maple Leafs. But on Tuesday, a piece of news landed in everyone’s laps and we just couldn’t hold back any longer.

Mitch Marner’s camp has contacted the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League, a European source told Sportsnet’s Rick Dhaliwal.

TSN’s Darren Dreger chimed in shortly after, adding that Ferris and Dubas met a few days ago and that while talks were positive, no progress was made.

By now, if you don’t know Ferris’ way of conducting business. He’s held out with two clients — Andreas Athanasiou and Josh Anderson — past training camp and with both of those individuals, as well as Sam Bennett, he’s threatened to head overseas for them to sign contracts. The question with Marner was never if Ferris was going to do it but when.

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For the sake of argument, let’s say that the Swiss league was in any way a possibility for Marner. According to 2112HockeyAgent.com, salary expectations in the NLB range anywhere from 80,000 to 450,000 Swiss Francs. With the conversion rate, the highest Marner would stand to gain is around $460,000 US.

That’s a long-winded way of explaining that if you had even a smidge of worry that Marner is leaving for Switzerland, you shouldn’t. It’s not going to happen.

However, it sounds as though his camp is talking to the Swiss side so that he can train with them while he holds out for a new deal, which is the route William Nylander went during his negotiations.

Zurich even acknowledged that they have been in contact.

With Marner and his camp assumedly looking for similar money to Auston Matthews, it looks as though he’s trying to head to the organization that his best friend spent his draft year with. Matthews likely recommended that Marner should try out Zurich if he’s going to train. He could show up to training camp with the Maple Leafs, but that would cause an absolute circus in the media.

So how do we go about getting through the rest of this saga?

My suggestion? Enjoy the rest of your summer. Go watch the Blue Jays, or o to the Ex (if you live around Toronto, that is). Leafs training camp gets going in a little while and the last thing you should be thinking about is scouring social media all day for updates on a situation you have no control over.

Hopefully, this is the last time we have to discuss MM before he actually puts pen to paper with the Maple Leafs on a new contract. I’ve seen the comments asking for more hockey content, and there will be some in the coming weeks, don’t worry.

Next. Kyle Dubas needs to remain firm with Mitch Marner. dark

What do you think about the latest speculation from Marner’s camp? Do you think this will continue to drag out? Let us know in the comments below. 

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