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Former Leafs and Lightning defenseman (among other teams) Zach Bogosian was on the Andy Strickland podcast the other day and pushed back on everyone hating on Mitch Marner.

I really appreciate Bogosian's argument that there's little justification for Marner specifically to become such a hated scapegoat by Leafs fans and all the talking heads [editor's note: there was a worse word here] in the media about him. Even when the host brought up Marner not taking hits in the playoffs, Bogosian cited Nikita Kucherov as a player who specifically tries to not get hit. Being elusive and dodging contact is a good thing, not a bad thing.

It's gone too far for long enough at this point. Anytime Marner posts on social media, it's a thunderstorm of hate, telling him to get to the gym. Whenever he's trying to do charity or support other people, every media question is about whether he'll demand a trade. Everything he does on the ice is a referendum on him as a player, or not enough.

I will admit early on in his career, especially during the "Marner vs Nylander Wars", I sided with Nylander and thus was always critical of Marner. But there came a time where I personally had to grow up and not act like everything is good vs bad, zero sum, doom and gloom dystopian fantasies.

Yes, the team has been bad. Yes, the team sucked last year and has barely won anything. But it is not one person's fault, banishing one player won't fix everything – it'd probably have made it worse. Hockey is a team sport.

At the end of the day, the Leafs have Mitch Marner on their team. He is most likely going to re-sign. Anything else is going to make the team worse. It's hard to be told that there are no options than the one that exists presently. Fans will be tired of this team until they win or the rebuild comes. I know many fanbases who felt the same way for a long time. Stamkos was hated for a while until he became the GOAT of the franchise. Ovechkin was the league's whipping boy, until his team won, after more than a decade in the league.

Teams always fail until they don't. Or they're the Sharks or Sabres and they do in fact always fail.

But back to what Bogosian said, Marner is by all accounts a very kind person who is trying literally everything under the Sun to try and win. The last thing I'll say on this topic is that on the ice, Marner is an extremely valuable player who does a lot of things that make the team better. Playmaking, possession and transition, defensive smarts and hustle, and shooting (yes, he shoots very well). Not everyone on the team can be hard-hitting grinders, you won't ever find three Eric Lindros' for the first line. Craig Berube loves him, so I hope he re-signs.

Moving onto the news of the day, Auston Matthews will be announced as the new captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs today, with John Tavares passing the torch onto the team's franchise player. The discussion will, of course, be completely about who's getting the A's because it involves Marner. But this is a big moment for the franchise. The Leafs haven't had a player as good as Matthews since Dave Keon. Matthews has wanted this additional pressure and responsibility for a while, and now he's getting it.

Yesterday was a busy one for a couple NHL teams. Here's how a couple trades and offer sheets went down.

First, the St. Louis Blues reacquired their own 2025 second round pick from the Pittsburgh Penguins. The two teams swapped second round picks, the Penguins got one in 2026 and an early third round pick (probably, it's Ottawa's) to sweeten the pot. The Blues got a fifth to go with the second they wanted.

Then, the Blues announced within half an hour that they have signed Oilers RFAs Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to offer sheets. Holloway's contract was the max for the third round pick compensation tier, and Broberg's was at the max for the second round pick compensation tier. If the Oilers want to keep both players, they'll have to find ~$7 million on their cap sheet, or they get a second and a third round pick if they lose both players. We'll see what the undeniable failure of a person and a manager, Stan Bowman, will do.

The Penguins weren't done as they then traded for Cody Glass and some picks in a seemingly unrelated move. Glass might've been a $2.5 million cap dump for the Predators here, otherwise they wouldn't have sweetened the pot. The guy who went the other way is an ECHLer.

That's enough FTB for one day. Enjoy the press conference, enjoy the philosophical arguments in today's Top 25 Under 25 post, and have a great Wednesday!

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