Good morning fans of t he Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club and assorted others!

Let me just say one thing: ARRRRRRRUUUUUGGGGHHHH!

Guh.

I was off work for ONE DAY and Leafs twitter made me crazy. Two items that will never seem to go away - Mitchell Marner and his contract and who will be the Maple Leafs captain.

First, Mitch.

Dreger also wants the Leafs to start their negotiating at 3yrs x $11m.

Start.

The Blue Jackets gave their star RFA a three year bridge deal, but the AAV is $5 million. Katya looked at that in more detail in the link below.

To Bridge or not to Bridge, that is the Mitch Marner question

Hey, Mitchy, go ahead and play in Switzerland if that’s what you really want. I’m sure they’ll be able to give you the $11 million your father agent Dreger was talking about on the radio today. Whatever, I don’t care anymore.

So, about the Leafs captaincy....

Someone took the time to fake a picture of Matthews doing a photo shoot wearing the C on his jersey. How am I so confident this is fake? Well....

1 - Why is he in a tent?

2 - Photo shoot day is the day before camp opens (September 12th) at the Mastercard Centre and they don’t do them in tents, they do it on the practice ice.

3 - The Maple Leafs kept the number retirement ceremony such a secret they couldn’t convince Mats Sundin to come to Toronto for opening night that year. There’s no way this would have been leaked.

4 - Matthews and Morgan Rielly were photographed with Adam Sandler today and Matthews has no beard. He hasn’t for a while.

Besides, Morgan Rielly should be captain.

MOVING ON

The Maple Leafs prospects played the Red Wings prospects and man, defender Nicholas Robertson is really good at scoring goals...

Kevin has more GIFs so go check out his Twitter feed, I’m not going to make a whole article of embedded tweets.

Travis Dermott had a serious discussion about next season.

Here’s more stuff for you to click on.

Katya has a new depth chart for you all:

There will be many new faces on the Leafs and the Marlies this season

Mackinaw Stats looks into the Leafs expected goals for this season

Introducing Consistency to Expected Goals

Speaking of captains...

A look back at the Sharks’ former captains

It’s never too early to prep for the draft!

2020 NHL Draft: Ten younger prospects to keep an eye on this season

The Growlers are prepping for the Leafs arrival on the rock.

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone!

From The Branches