Pierre Lebrun: One Team Reportedly Already Left Off Mitch Marner's List of Preferred Destinations
Photo credit: TSN
NHL Insider Pierre LeBrun revealed that the Columbus Blue Jackets aren't high on Mitch Marner's preferred list of destinations when it comes to free agency.
As the questions surrounding Mitch Marner's future destination get more and more rampant, the Maple Leafs seemingly have no chance they can bring him back, and he's headed going to be headed elsewhere this summer.
However, according to NHL Insider Pierre LeBrun, there's another team that's going to end up missing out on Mitch Marner as well, that being the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Columbus not on Mitch Marner's list of preferred destinations
In his latest article for The Athletic, LeBrun wrote that the Marner camp has a list of places they would like to pursue and while the Blue Jackets might want to make a push; they could be out of lucky regardless:
Columbus has the most cap room in the league and is eager to add this summer.
But the Jackets don't want to be a dumping ground for bad contracts. They want to add talent to a team that surprised everyone this past season and nearly made the playoffs.
They thought Marchment would have been a solid add. They would absolutely enter the Mitch Marner sweepstakes if invited to do so. But unless something changes, I don't think the Marner camp has Columbus on its list of preferred destinations. At least not so far. - Pierre LeBrun
But the Jackets don't want to be a dumping ground for bad contracts. They want to add talent to a team that surprised everyone this past season and nearly made the playoffs.
They thought Marchment would have been a solid add. They would absolutely enter the Mitch Marner sweepstakes if invited to do so. But unless something changes, I don't think the Marner camp has Columbus on its list of preferred destinations. At least not so far. - Pierre LeBrun
Columbus does have a ton of space to fit Marner is, but is that the best move?
Blue Jackets have too many contracts to deal with to focus on one
Even if Marner was interested in signing with Columbus, they have a total of nine free agents who they have to deal with including Jack Johnson, Ivan Provorov, Dante Fabbro, Luke Kunin and potentially sign Adam Fantilli to a long-term deal.
So it feels like they wouldn't be able to get Marner anyways, and they should certainly focus on getting things locked up first before they focus on making a splash.
Although the team doesn't need a Marner in order to make that splash. They have the most available cap and could easily sway a name like Brock Boeser or Nikolaj Ehlers to the squad.
Is that a 102-point Marner? No, but they both offer a ton of offensive upside and at a much cheaper deal than the potential $14-million floated around for Mitch's next deal.
But for now, Columbus isn't going to be where Marner calls home; but you never know until he puts pen to paper.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 21 | 669 ANSWERS Pierre Lebrun: One Team Reportedly Already Left Off Mitch Marner's List of Preferred Destinations Where will Mitch Marner end up signing this summer? | ||
| Carolina | 77 | 11.5 % |
| Vegas | 350 | 52.3 % |
| Los Angeles | 119 | 17.8 % |
| Toronto | 123 | 18.4 % |
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