Landing Marner big win for Golden Knights, bigger loss for Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- The end of the Mitch Marner era in Toronto is being greeted with a mixture of “good luck” and “good riddance” from a passionate, yet polarized fan base.

The glass-half-full group looks at the 28-year-old as a local area kid who grew up dreaming of playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs and subsequently became one of the top points producers in franchise history, ranking fifth all-time.

The glass-half-empty followers see him as someone who underachieved at Stanley Cup Playoff time and consistently criticized him for it, despite the fact that teammates Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly, who with Marner won just two postseason series in their nine years playing together, never seemed to get the same amount of public heat.

Those are the emotions -- and there are plenty of them -- that have been involved in this seemingly ongoing saga.

Having said that, let’s take the sentimentality out of the situation and look at the raw facts.

The reality is, from a talent standpoint, the Vegas Golden Knights are a better team right now after their acquisition of Marner was confirmed Tuesday.

The Maple Leafs, on the other hand, are not.

It’s fact.

Since entering the NHL in 2016, Marner is eighth in the NHL with 741 points (221 goals, 520 assists), eight fewer than Sidney Crosby. The seven players ahead of him are Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov, Artemi Panarin, David Pastrnak and Crosby. A legitimate argument can be made all will be in the Hockey Hall of Fame one day.

Not only does Marner have the most regular-season points as a Maple Leaf in that span, no Toronto player has more in the Stanley Cup Playoffs than his 63 points (13 goals, 50 assists). Sure, he deserves his share of scrutiny for the team’s postseason failures, but why Marner’s often been a disproportionate target of blame from the outside for that lack of success has been head-scratching.

During his tenure in Toronto, disgruntled fans dumped trash on his lawn. One even published the address of his home on social media.

Ridiculous. And uncalled for.

And when he signed a six-year, $65.358 million deal ($10.9 million average annual value) on Sept. 19, 2019, he was chastised in certain circles in southern Ontario for not taking a hometown discount, criticism former Calgary Flames GM Craig Button, now an analyst with TSN, considers to be ludicrous.

“Listen, I should start calling him 4-M: ‘Much Maligned Mitch Marner,’” Button said in March. “This guy has been a brilliant player for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He’s been a First-Team All-Star right wing, Selke Trophy finalist. All he does is perform in every critical area.”

To Button’s point: Marner’s resume includes being selected to the NHL All-Rookie Team in 2017, the First All-Star Team in 2021 and 2022, and All-Star Game appearances in 2020, 2023 and 2024. He sees time on the power play and penalty kill and was a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the League’s top defensive forward in 2023.

The Golden Knights embrace all of those things and were aggressive in acquiring Marner in a sign-and-trade after the skilled forward signed an eight-year, $96 million contract ($12 million average annual value) with Toronto.

For a Vegas franchise just two years removed from its 2023 Stanley Cup championship, general manager Kelly McCrimmon and his staff once again were bold in making a big splash, something they’ve done in the past with acquisitions like Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo, Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin. In Marner, the rugged Golden Knights welcome some much-needed hustle to a roster full of muscle, a box of need they have now checked off.

For Marner, he comes to a team with a winning pedigree. With Stone and Eichel, he doesn’t have to be an alpha on the ice or in a leadership role. He just needs to do his thing.

To that end, Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy knows exactly what he’s getting in Marner. He was behind the Boston Bruins bench when they defeated Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven-game series in 2017-18 and 2018-19, then was an assistant with Canada when Marner set up Connor McDavid for the winning goal against the United States in the gold-medal game at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

As for the Maple Leafs, the change many had been calling for after so much postseason stagnation now has come in a big way. A word of caution here, however: be careful what you wish for.

First off, how do you make up the 102 points from last season that Marner produced? Even general manager Brad Treliving understands there is no quick fix here.

“There's not a Mitch Marner tree you go to and just replace him,” Treliving has said repeatedly.

Secondly, the Maple Leafs now find the gap widened between themselves and the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, the team they took to seven games in the Eastern Conference Second Round.

While Toronto bid adieu to the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season in Marner, the Panthers managed to complete salary cap magic by re-signing forwards Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, and defenseman Aaron Ekblad. That’s a double whammy for the Maple Leafs.

Indeed, as if it wasn’t difficult enough to have the Panthers being their Atlantic Division foes, Bennett and Marchand were on Toronto’s radar in free agency as part of Treliving’s stated goal of changing the team’s DNA. Now they’re off the board, remaining with one of the Maple Leafs' most heated rivals.

While the hockey world is left digesting the impact of the Marner move, the player himself delivered a heartfelt message to Maple Leafs fans and the city of Toronto on instagram Monday morning.

“Leaving isn’t easy. This city is where I grew up, where I fell in love with hockey, and where I’ve had the incredible honour of living out my childhood dream. Wearing the Maple Leaf on my chest wasn’t just about playing for a team, it was about representing my home,” Marner wrote.

Marner, who was selected No. 4 by the Maple Leafs in the 2015 NHL Draft, then addressed the team’s playoff stumbles.

“When I was drafted, all I wanted was to help bring a Stanley Cup to Toronto,” Marner wrote. “That was always the goal, and I came up short. I know how much this team means to this city, and I know the expectations that come with wearing this jersey.

“I gave everything I had, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. That’s hard to admit, because I wanted it so badly, for all of us.”

At first blush, his Stanley Cup dream appears to be closer now that he’s with the Golden Knights.

The same can’t be said for the Maple Leafs right now.