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Dans les coulisses

“There’s about a 0% chance that the Core Four will be intact in Toronto next year.”

In recent years, the Maple Leafs have failed to live up to expectations in Toronto. Despite the talent in town, they’ve been unable to make long runs in the playoffs, only making it past the first round once with the Core Four.

Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares are excellent players, but they can’t take Toronto all the way.

Once again this season, the Leafs folded in the first round. Sheldon Keefe lost his job, and now it’s up to Craig Berube to get the Core Four where it needs to be…

Unless…

Recently, Chris Johnston took advantage of his appearance on TSN’sOverDrive radio show to state that, in his opinion, “there’s about a 0% chance that the entire Core Four will be back”.

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The segment is a little dated, but when you look at what’s going on right now, you’d think Johnston might have been on to something.

Yesterday, his colleague at TSN and The Athletic, Pierre LeBrun, reported that the Leafs would like to keep Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi. However, in both cases, he mentions that they’ll want to sign a long-term contract… and wonders if it won’t take “something between $5 and $6 million a year” for each of them.

With the Maple Leafs already paying over $10 million a year for each of their four big forwards, this would be two more major offensive contributors to the group. It’s debatable whether this is too high a salary for Domi and Bertuzzi, but if these are the guys’ demands and the Leafs want to keep them, this could be the price to pay.

At some point, you can’t pay everyone at a high price. We’ll have to trim the fat… and obviously, Mitch Marner is the name that keeps coming up. Chris Johnston reminded us on The Chris Johnston Show yesterday: the most likely to leave among the Core Four is Marner.

It’ll be a situation to keep an eye on, but with the supporting players wanting a piece of the action, something’s got to give in Toronto.

Brad Treliving has a big summer ahead of him.

In brief

– He’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

– This will be one to watch.

– Clearly.

– Big win.

– Nothing less.

– A first win for Caitlin Clark in the WNBA.