Verbeek wants to build a team capable of going deep into the playoffs, explain to me how Marner helps that happen while occupying 12+ million against the cap that could have been spent on players who can or have gotten it done before, to say nothing of Bankrolling TORs cap circumvention for years, and the number of trade clauses that need to be waived for this to happen.

First convince me Marner is the missing piece.

Anaheim doesn't subscribe to the "Iceberg Theory" of roster construction and thus has no intention of becoming top-down, top-heavy Toronto 2.0, especially when the most expensive piece is a lame duck.

An argument can be made for acquiring Mitch Marner if he had at least 5 years left on his contract. Getting him for one season is pointless, because Anaheim wont qualify for the playoffs even if Marner himself single-handedly wins us 15 more games -- we missed the playoffs by 20 this year.