There goes the team dad. Patrick Marleau has reportedly been traded to Carolina by the Leafs, who will also attach a conditional first-round pick and a seventh-rounder to get off his contract.
Of course, the cap relief comes in handy right now for the Leafs, amid their contract negotiations with Mitch Marner as well as their other RFAs. Moving Marleau will clear $6.5 million off their books, although it certainly comes at a price here.
While Marleau’s contributions have declined with age, he obviously played an important role as a veteran mentor to some of the younger Leafs, even taking in Marner and Auston Matthews as basically extended family members.
He’ll surely be missed, but so goes the business. Marleau took to his wife’s Twitter account to say a few words, and the hockey world had reactions as well.
