Insider Reveals Eastern Conference Team To Heavily Pursue Leafs' Mitch Marner in Free Agency

Mitch Marner continues to be reluctant to negotiate a new contract during the season with the Leafs, despite their best efforts.

His reluctancy is ultimately what led to the Leafs exploring the idea of acquiring Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes ahead of the trade deadline.

Although Marner declined to waive his no-movement clause as part of the Rantanen deal, Hurricanes' GM Eric Tulsky subtly admitted to The Athletic without directly mentioning Marner, that the Canes will be very aggressive in free agency with $20M in cap space.

On Monday's edition of 'Insider Trading' from the annual GM meetings, TSN's Pierre LeBrun, who was the one that spoke with Tulsky directly, revealed that Marner will be heavily pursued by the Hurricanes.

The pending free agent is expected to become the highest paid winger in NHL history should he ultimately hit the open market on July 1st, with some suggesting he could get North of $14M.

While fans want Marner to sign an extension, many appear to be fine with waiting to see how the Leafs do in the playoffs as they are sick of the Leafs 'running it back' with the same four forwards with lackluster results.

His reported ask is also not sitting well with fans and if Marner chooses money over remaining a Leaf after constantly saying he wants to remain with the team for a long time, fans will make the Islanders fans' treatment of John Tavares look tame if/when Marner returns in a different jersey.