Maple Leafs Rumors: Mitch Marner Heads to Utah In Mock Trade Proposal

The Utah Hockey Club is looking to create a major buzz as they swarm the Beehive State, and what better way to do it than by bringing in one of the top playmakers in the NHL, a dyamic 90+ point producer in Mitch Marner.

As the Toronto Maple Leafs continue to debate amongst themselves what will happen with their long-standing 'Core Four' member as he gets set to enter the final year of his $10.9 million AAV contract, trade ideas are being floated all around them.

One of the latest comes to us from Sam McKee of Sportsnet, who proposed this huge mock trade that would send Marner to the Utah Hockey Club.

Utah HC Receives:

Mitch Marner

Toronto Maple Leafs Receive:

G Connor Ingram
C Clayton Keller
F Lawson Crouse

Utah gets a true All-Star-level marquee player in his prime in Marner, while the Leafs get to address a number of key areas of concern.

Ingram, a 27-year-old goalie with two solid years under his belt with the Arizona Coyotes, has a .907 save percentage over those two seasons, led the league this year in shutouts (6) and is the 2024 winner of the Masterton Trophy (the latter accolade won't help much on the ice, but he's shown his dedication to the game after coming back from near retirement in 2021 due to clinical depression). Toronto needs some more assurance between the pipes with Joseph Woll's injury history.

Keller, of course, is a premier offensive player himself, coming off back-to-back 30+ goal seasons, and is signed for another four years at a reasonable $7.5 million AAV for the type of point-per-game production he provides.

Crouse is a three-time 20-goal scorer already, and provides the size and physical game (6'4", 215 pounds, 175-200 hits per season) that the Leafs could certainly use on their second line.

It seems like a slam dunk for Toronto, but would Utah go for this? McKee explains why they might:

"New owner syndrome, where they're like, 'we want a star, we've got a new arena.'" Is Keller that 'star' already though? Fellow Sportset host Justin Bourne insists, "No, he's not. Let's not pretend Clayton Keller is Mitch Marner."

So who says no?