Insider: Mitch Marner Has Made His Choice on Free Agency and a Potential Return to the Leafs

Since breaking into the NHL in 2016, Mitch Marner has established himself as one of the best players in the NHL. Currently, Marner is a pending unrestricted free agent, and there is a lot of speculation about his future and which team he will play for next year.

After nine years in Toronto, Marner is top five in Maple Leafs all-time scoring, ahead of legends like Frank Mahovlich and Tim Horton.

His achievement has recently sparked a debate of if Marner deserves to have his jersey retired by the Leafs or not.

Recently, NHL Insider Chris Johnston reported that Marner has decided on whether or not to test free agency come July 1st.

The intriguing part of Marner testing free agency but still considering the Leafs as a potential destination is that if he gets to July 1st, the Leafs will lose the right to offer Marner an eight-year contract, something only they can do before July 1st.

This will further restrict the Leafs' already little leverage with Marner and means that they will have to push even harder to get a deal done as soon as possible or run the risk of getting outbid on the open market.

Whether or not Marner deserves to have his jersey retired is up for debate, but he could certainly help his case to have number 16 go up into the rafters if he signed an extension.

Through his nine-year career, Marner has played in 657 games but has also registered an impressive 221 goals and 741 points.

While his regular season numbers are fantastic, Leafs fans are quick to point out his playoff production, where he has scored only 63 points in 70 games. This is a 20% decline in his production from the regular season to the playoffs.

For the Leafs to keep Marner, they would need to be certain that his playoff numbers can get closer to his regular season numbers, or find themselves wasting more money; and time, on another failed Cup venture.