Perhaps Toronto's biggest villain in recent memory, Brad Marchand pulled off the most epic troll job against the Maple Leafs before signing an extension in Florida.
Outside of the Mitch Marner situation, the biggest storyline heading into the off-season was whether or not the Florida Panthers were going to be able to keep their free agents from reaching the open market in Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Brad Marchand.
Reports and rumours were coming at us left and right that Marchand would probably price himself out of Florida. That gave way to a lot of hope that the Toronto Maple Leafs would be able to use their cap space to address a position of need by signing the veteran.
One by one, the Panthers managed to extend Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand. Marchand's deal in particular was surprising since he was signed to a 6-year deal, which would take him to his age-43 season.
In the end, the Maple Leafs were caught flat footed and were unable to grab a difference-making forward in free agency. However, as Nick Alberga pointed out this week, perhaps it was Marchand's plan all along.
With all the troll jobs he has pulled over the years against Toronto, this one takes the cake and then some, considering some of the outlets that truly believed a deal was incoming, thanks to some comments directly from Marchand himself.
For the Maple Leafs, they now have to go back to the drawing board despite their early work that saw them extending forwards John Tavares and Matthew Knies before free agency opened up.
They were also able to trade for Matias Maccelli and Nicolas Roy, extend Steven Lorentz, and sign Michael Pezzetta, however they're still missing that true X-factor in the top-6 -- a spot that Marchand would have filled in admirably.
There's still plenty of time for Brad Treliving to cook something up but it will more than likely have to take place through a trade, considering all the players that have just signed new deals.
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