I fail to see why Columbus would want either a rental or the opportunity to pay a winger 13+ million dollars.

Hard pass on that trade. TOR can keep him. there is also no way he waives to come to cbus. more than likely he wont waive at all and will just walk after next season.

Every time a Marner trade pops up, it's a ton of fun. There's 4 options:

1. Leafs sign Marner to an extension, with trade protection. He's a Leaf until he's 35, and if they're lucky, it comes in at an AAV just over Nylander (we'll call it $12M per).
2. Leafs let Marner walk as a UFA in the offseason, simply because they either don't think he can get them over the hump, or they don't want to commit $12M to another winger.
3. Marner, for some reason (tired of Toronto media, etc.), decides to waive his NMC. Toronto trades him as a rental for one season, and gets a lesser return because of his uncertainty long-term.
4. Marner waives his NMC, and is traded to another team with an extension already in place. Toronto takes a hit on his value because he has full power to steer where he wants to go in this scenario (a la Tarasenko).

All said, Toronto is either going to be stuck with another $12M+ winger forever, or get shafted on value in a trade, or lose him for nothing. All 3 options are funny to me.