The more the focus is on William Nylander’s negotiation, Jake Gardiner’s future in Toronto and the upcoming contract conversations of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, this much has become obvious: Last year’s free-agent signing of Patrick Marleau was a mistake.
It made sense on a one-year arrangement, to which Marleau would never have agreed. It might have made sense on a two-year deal, had Marleau played better than he has through the first 10 games of the season. But he never would have a signed a two-year contact.
As the Leafs need to find appropriate money for Nylander, maintaining Gardiner, and the future deals of Matthews and Marner, that $6.25 million that goes to Marleau, spread over three or four players initially, is money they could have used to properly set their payroll for the future.
The Leafs understood that signing Marleau meant they would lose James van Riemsdyk to free agency. They were willing to live with that.
It seems more a problem now with Marleau, at age 39, not taking advantage of the position coach Mike Babcock has put him in — placing him on the left wing on Matthews’ line.
Heading into Saturday night’s game, Marleau had not contributed a goal while playing with Matthews, not scored a goal at even strength where he had 22 a year ago. He is off to the worst 10-game start of his career, production-wise. Last season, he was among the best Leafs in shots on goal from the slot. This season, he’s 12th best.
And he’s expensive as the Leafs second highest paid player. Next year, assuming Nylander is here, assuming Gardiner gets re-signed, assuming Matthews and Marner have new giant deals, he becomes even more costly and, because of age, can’t be bought out as a salary-cap savings.
