According to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO, Keith Pelley, when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs, “good is simply not good enough.” So, it should come as no surprise, that following the Leafs’ Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins — that was, their seventh first-round exit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the last eight seasons — significant changes would be necessary. Good — but simply not good enough — coach Sheldon Keefe was first to go .
Reportedly, one or more of the Maple Leafs’ Core Four — Captain John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander (plus Morgan Rielly) — may be next to go . However, there are issues — some practical and some philosophical — with that. Each of the Core Four have previously negotiated no-movement clauses .
So, unless Tavares or Marner choose to waive (or are coerced to waive) their no-trade agreements, there’s no trade. As a result, pundits have suggested the Maple Leafs could (and perhaps even should) “make life rather miserable for him [Mitch Marner] in his last season in Toronto” to nudge one or more of the Core Four to consider waiving their no-movement clauses. However, such hardball negotiation tactics are inadvisable.
Hardball, or hard bargaining, tactics are inadvisable for several reasons. First, according to Harvard professors David Lax and James Sebenius , such coercive strategies and tactics are doomed to fail because they are (at best) short-term, short-sighted and fail to acco.
