Mitch Marner “much more likely to go to free agency.”

At least one National Hockey League insider appears to believe that the Toronto Maple Leafs and star forward Mitch Marner are headed for a split.

On Sunday night, during the telecast of a game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks, veteran NHL insider Bob McKenzie was asked a number of questions in one of the intermission periods. Among those questions was one regarding whether or not the Maple Leafs should consider giving Marner a contract extension prior to the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Interestingly enough, McKenzie stated that he believes the point is moot due to the fact that he does not believe the ball is in the Maple Leafs court here.

"I don't think it will happen, I think he's much more likely to go to free agency and I think the Leafs understand that," revealed McKenzie on Sunday night.

Now to be clear, McKenzie went out of his way to say that he would offer Marner a new contract if here were general manager of the Maple Leafs, suggesting that players of Marner's skill level are simply too difficult to come by.

"Players like Marner are difficult to come by and if you don't do well in the playoffs you gotta keep working at it, I know Leafs' fans don't like to hear that but I would try to sign him," said McKenzie.

Marner is not only having another terrific season for the Maple Leafs, with 16 goals and 55 assists for a total of 71 points through just 55 games, but is fresh off of a Four Nations Face-Off tournament where he represented his home country of Canada and captured the championship. Marner was a major factor in that tournament including scoring a game winning goal in overtime as well as setting up the tournament winning goal in overtime, and would unquestionably draw a massive amount of interest should he hit the open market.

This of course doesn't sound very good for the Maple Leafs, which is less than ideal when you consider that McKenzie rarely, if ever, misses the mark.