Leafs Winger Mitch Marner Opens Training Camp by Refusing to Respond to Important Question

The 2023-24 season was a mixed bag for Marner, who did produce 85 points in just 69 games to cap off a very productive regular season, but missed a significant amount of time due to a lower-body injury, believed to be a high-ankle sprain.

Following the injury ordeal and the conclusion of the regular season, a poor level of production in the postseason led to much of the fanbase scorning Marner for not elevating his game when it mattered most. This, of course, led to the fanbase pushing for change and branding Marner as the scapegoat in the Round 1 loss to Boston.

The Leafs have opted to run it back with the same core once again, but this time, it really does feel like change will occur if the team falls short of expectations in the postseason. Why is change more likely now? Well, for starters, Marner and Tavares are on expiring contracts.

Ahead of today's session with the media, we knew Tavares and Marner were going to face questions about their contract statuses. For Tavares, talking about it was not an issue, as the former Leafs captain addressed his future openly, stating that he wants to sign an extension. Marner, however, took a far different approach.

Marner refusing to discuss the topic of his next contract wasn't exactly a surprise, but he did mention that he grew up a Leafs fan and wants to know what it would be like to see this team succeed and what it would mean for the city of Toronto. In that sense, perhaps we did receive our answer as far as what Marner's preference is. To me, it certainly sounded like his preference was to remain a Leaf long term.

There's still a chance that a deal gets done in-season, as it did with William Nylander last year, but it seems far more likely that the Leafs will wait on this until the conclusion of the playoffs to assess Marner's performance and whether or not the organization believes it can win with a star player who has failed to elevate his game in the playoffs in the past.