Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has addressed the departure of Mitch Marner. Marner was part of a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights this summer. Now, Berube has made his thoughts on the situation known in a light-hearted manner.
“What excites me is not hearing about ‘Core Four' anymore,” said Berube, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
With Marner moving on to the Golden Knights, only Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares remain of the group, now forming a trio.
While Berube is able to make jokes about the loss of Marner, expectations in Toronto are still high going into the season. GM Brad Treliving was able to get value in the Marner sign-and-trade by acquiring forward Nicolas Roy. He was also able to retain both Tavares and Matthew Knies this offseason.
The ‘Core Four' era was a disappointment in Toronto
The ‘Core Four' was dominant in the regular season. Nylander was the first to join the Maple Leafs at the NHL level, making his debut in 2015-16. Matthews and Marner both joined him in the 2016-17 season. Tavares completed the group in 2018-19 after coming over from the New York Islanders.
Since the start of the 1993-94 season, no team has done less with more than this group. According to research done by Luke Kawa using Hockey Reference, the Leafs have the longest-tenured core, of having four players with an average of 0.8 era-adjusted points per game.
Further, of the teams with a quartet of players generating at a minimum 1.15 era-adjusted points per game since 1993-94, five have won the Stanley Cup. Another four played in the Stanley Cup Final, while the other two played in the conference final. The Maple Leafs did not make it to a conference final during this era, and only advanced to the second round twice.
For now, Berube can make jokes, but unless he can guide the Maple Leafs to playoff success, the butt of the joke will continue to be his team and their playoff failures.
