Mitch Marner spent nine seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, trying to bring back the Stanley Cup to that city for the first time since 1967. As the newest member of the Vegas Golden Knights, who landed the most coveted player in NHL free agency this week, his location has changed but his goal remains the same.
“You want to be in a place where you can win. That’s the whole goal of why we do this. You want to hoist a Stanley Cup. This team has shown that they can do it. I’m lucky enough to now hopefully help bring it back here,” Marner said of the Golden Knights, who won the Cup for the first time in 2023.
Marner, 28, came to Vegas in a sign-and-trade with the Maple Leafs before NHL free agency started on July 1. The Golden Knights sent center Nicolas Roy to Toronto, who signed Marner to an eight-year, $93-million contract before trading him to Vegas. The contract carries a $12 million annual cap hit, currently the highest on the team.
The trade ended a tumultuous tenure for Marner in Toronto. He was drafted No. 4 in 2015 and became a cornerstone young player for the Leafs along with center Auston Matthews. With a charismatic personality and a great two-way game, Marner quickly became a fan favorite. He’s fifth all time in franchise history with 741 points, with 221 goals and 520 assists in 657 regular-season games.
“Mitch is going to go down as one of the great Leafs. The statistics prove it,” Toronto general manager Brad Treliving said Tuesday.
But public sentiment slowly started turning against Marner in Toronto. A difficult contract negotiation ended with him taking a six-year deal with a lofty $10.893 million cap hit. Marner took criticism for the Leafs’ lack of playoff success, as Toronto failed to advance past the second round during his time with the franchise. Marner’s points per game in the postseason (0.90) was demonstrably lower than in the regular season (1.13).
“We didn’t win, obviously. We didn’t do what we wanted to do,” Marner said of the Maple Leafs. “They took a risky pick on a small kid from Toronto that was forever grateful to be able to wear a Maple Leaf jersey. But now, being a family man and a father, we were ready to look somewhere else and find a new place to grow our family.”
Marner said he first started considering Vegas at the NHL trade deadline. The Leafs came to him with a trade proposal to play for another team — widely reported to be the Carolina Hurricanes — that Marner denied, having a no-movement clause in his contract.
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“My wife was seven or eight months pregnant at the time, and we weren’t really going to go somewhere that was maybe just going to be a short stint. If we were going somewhere, we were going to sign for an extension, raise our child there,” he said.
Treliving acknowledged that the Maple Leafs tried to move Marner.
“Ultimately, the player has a choice. We certainly approached Mitch to engage him on a contract. Mitch and his representative wanted to wait until his year was done. As it became clearer to us that the potential might not be there, we started to look at alternatives. As negotiated, Mitch has a full no-move clause, so, he controlled the process,” he said.
Marner heard that Vegas was trying to put together a trade for him at the deadline in a three-way deal. It didn’t come to fruition, but it planted the seed that it might be his next NHL destination. He had teammates in Ryan Reaves and Max Pacioretty, former Golden Knights that he spoke with about life in Vegas.
Marner sat down with his family and agent after the Leafs’ season ended to discuss his options as a free agent. Though there were other teams he was interested in, Marner got word last Friday that Vegas and Toronto were discussing a trade for his rights.
“We thought about going to free agency, but this is the place we want to be. We didn’t want to lose that opportunity and we want to join this hockey team,” he said.
That the Golden Knights traded Roy to Toronto for Marner was a point of intrigue. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on his podcast that there was talk around the NHL that “the Maple Leafs will go after Vegas for tampering” with Marner if he signed with the Knights. “If they make a deal with Toronto and send a good player to Toronto, I’m betting that any chance the Maple Leafs file for tampering goes away,” Friedman said.
Treliving declined to discuss the possibility of tampering charges. “Any reporting, I’m not going to comment on any of that,” he said.
Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon wasn’t asked about tampering allegations outright but emphasized exactly why the Golden Knights made the trade with Toronto on multiple occasions in his news conference.
“We wanted to do a sign and trade with Toronto so that we could get the eighth year on the contract. The only team that can give the player the eighth year is the team that he’s on,” McCrimmon said. “For us, the eighth year really helped us in terms of what the AAV might be for his contract. If it was a seven-year contract, to get to $96 million, you’ve got an AAV of $13.7 million. That really impacts our ability to take the player onto our team.”
He also said that the Golden Knights wanted to get ahead of the July 1 free agency period by securing Marner early. “We wanted to eliminate other teams. We wanted to be able to create a one-on-one relationship with his representatives in terms of trying to do a contract. And that’s how the deal came together,” he said.
McCrimmon also said that the trade discussions at the deadline “were initiated by Toronto.”
The Vegas general manager did lash out at some of the reporting around the trade, specifically that Marner was seeking a shorter-term deal and that players such as Vegas centers William Karlsson and Tomas Hertl might be traded to make room for Marner.
“That wasn’t true. It just wasn’t true. It’s on that long list of things that have gone on the last month that had absolutely [no] credibility. It’s shameful, to be honest, that I’ve got a phone William Karlsson and say, ‘Carly, I’m sorry, you got to go through this s—. You’re not for trade. Tomas, relax, you’re not for trade.’ That’s ridiculous,” McCrimmon said. “We did the trade because we wanted the eighth year. They wanted the eighth year.”
However Marner ended up in Vegas, the fact is that the Golden Knights just landed NHL free agency’s biggest prize: a player who can score 100 points, be among the best defensive forwards in the league and who is motivated to finally win a championship in his family’s new home.
“I’ve been very lucky to be with some very good teams and very good players. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get over the hump and that sucks a lot, to be honest,” he said. “But you’ve got to look past things. We’ve got a new great opportunity here, with an unbelievable team.”
