‘Things are just working’ for Marner since joining Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- Walk into the foyer of the Vegas Golden Knights’ practice facility on Saturday, and you were immediately greeted by Mitch Marner.

Or, to be more specific, five Mitch Marners.

That was at least his image anyway.

Marner and the Golden Knights held their last public practice in front of hundreds of fans who wanted to wish them well before the team departed for Raleigh, North Carolina, for the Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. 

Game 1 of the best-of-7 series will be played at Lenovo Center on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

As part of the festivities, fans could get life-sized cutouts of the faces of their favorite Golden Knights attached to a stick so they could thrust them up and down in support of the players in question during various drills.

To no surprise, Marner’s was among the fan favorites.

The 29-year-old forward enters the Cup Final leading the NHL this postseason with 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 16 games. He’s also plus-12, which leads Vegas.

Marner, who had 63 points (13 goals, 50 assists) in 70 games over nine postseasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has found his groove with the Golden Knights and is among the leading candidates for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Why the breakout? Why the success?

One popular theory -- the intense spotlight in his hometown of Toronto may have been too much for him and some of his teammates. In essence, trying to do too much resulted in doing too little when all was said and done. 

“I actually think the pressure (in Toronto) is the same as here,” Marner said in a 1-on-1 interview with NHL.com. “I know everyone’s been saying all that stuff. But in the end, the most pressure you have is the pressure you put on yourself as a player. 

“You want to be the best player you can be every night and obviously try to help your team succeed any way possible.”

One thing is certain -- this is a different team from those Maple Leafs squads that won just two playoff series over his time there. 

Here, there is no so-called “Core Four,” the group of top-end Toronto players that included Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares and William Nylander who were looked upon to lead the Maple Leafs in each and every postseason game. There are 12 players on the Golden Knights roster who won the Stanley Cup with them in 2023. Marner doesn’t have to be “the man,” or at least one of them. He is just one of the boys.

“If he’s not producing for a couple of games, it’s not the end of the world in Vegas, where in Toronto it’d probably get scrutinized a lot more,” Bruce Cassidy, who was replaced by John Tortorella as Golden Knights coach on March 29, told the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast last week.

“I think things are just working,” Marner said. “There's nothing different. There's nothing different about how I'm getting ready for games, how I'm getting myself prepared to play a hockey game, so everything's really the same. 

“Yeah, I don't know. Things are just working.”

Just the way Kelly McCrimmon hoped it would.

In acquiring Marner on July 1, 2025, the Golden Knights general manager, while understanding the lack of postseason success, saw a talented player who, to that point, was eighth in the NHL with 741 points (221 goals, 520 assists), eight fewer than Sidney Crosby, since entering the NHL for the 2016-17 season. The other six players ahead of him were Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov, Artemi Panarin and David Pastrnak. A legitimate argument can be made they all will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame someday.

Not only did Marner have the most regular-season points as a Maple Leaf in that span, no Toronto player had more in the playoffs. McCrimmon saw a player who he considered had absorbed a disproportionate target of blame from the outside for the lack of success compared to some of his teammates.

Marner was acquired by Vegas in a sign-and-trade with Toronto that included an eight-year, $96 million contract ($12 million average annual value). Now, with the Golden Knights just four wins away from a second Stanley Cup championship in four seasons, McCrimmon couldn’t be more satisfied.

“We were very anxious to acquire him,” McCrimmon said. “For me, Mitch had a lot of success in Toronto, whatever you want to say about the postseason.

“There were some parallels to Jack Eichel in Buffalo. Jack's Buffalo team didn't have the same success that Mitch's teams in Toronto did, but there was a narrative around Eichel like there was around Mitch. We felt they’re both tremendous players, they’re both superstars.”

Eichel was the No. 2 pick by the Buffalo Sabres at the 2015 NHL Draft, one pick behind McDavid, who went to the Edmonton Oilers. From 2015-21, he had 355 points (139 goals, 216 assists) in 375 games as the face of the Sabres.

In March 2021, Eichel hit his head against the boards during a game against the New York Islanders, resulting in a herniated disk in his neck that caused him to miss the final 33 games of the season. 

The Sabres were not comfortable with Eichel’s desire to have artificial disk replacement surgery, which had never been performed on an NHL player. Having asked for a trade, Eichel subsequently failed his physical prior to training camp in September and was stripped of his captaincy by then-Buffalo general manager Kevyn Adams.

On Nov. 4, 2021, Eichel was traded to Vegas, along with a third-round pick in the 2023 or 2024 NHL Draft, for forwards Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch, a first-round pick in the 2022 or 2023 NHL Draft and a second-round pick in the 2023 or 2024 draft. 

The Golden Knights allowed Eichel to have the surgery he was seeking, which took place eight days after they acquired him. Since then, he’s averaged more than a point per game with 343 (127 goals, 216 assists) in 315 games and helped Vegas win the Cup in 2023.

Like Marner, a lack of postseason success – Buffalo did not qualify for the playoffs in his time there -- initially left Eichel as a kind of a villain with Sabres fans after he left, a similar situation (or, as McCrimmon puts it, a “parallel one”) to that of Marner in Toronto. As such, one of the first people to reach out to Marner after the trade was Eichel. Winning, he told his new teammate, is the best way to drown out the noise.

“Look, I think everyone has their own story, right?” Eichel told NHL.com. “And Mitch has his own, and the things that he went through in Toronto. We’ve had a few conversations this year, and, you know, just kind of getting a better understanding of some of the stuff that he went through, and where he's at now. 

“And listen, I mean, I don't really need to help a guy like that when he comes here. He has such a great personality, he’s such a great hockey player, he fits in the locker really easily. I'm sure he has a little bit of scar tissue from some of his experiences in Toronto, but with that being said, I think he came in here with just such a great attitude, and (he’s) so happy to be a part of this team, and we're so happy to have him. And I think he's just really enjoyed himself here this year. 

“In terms of the things that I think he endured in Toronto, I think it's made him, you know, appreciate his situation now. If you ask Mitch, I'm sure he's more than grateful for his time in Toronto and everything. I know he is, what that meant to him and his family to be able to play for the team that he grew up idolizing and everything like that. I think he's just trying to live in the moment, and he's happy in his current situation.”

Thanks, in part, to the support of his Golden Knights teammates.

“Jack’s been great,” Marner said. “He’s easy to talk to and to ask questions about stuff. I think obviously a lot of us have been traded from a different team that we were with for a while, so yeah, we leaned on one each other throughout the year.

“I mean, nothing can change with the past. That's something I always talk about, so I'm always in the present moment. As everything happened with the trade, all of our thoughts and stuff went right to Vegas and about how you know I can try to make this team better, how they can help me be a better player.

“I had to flip the page right away.”

Almost a year later, McCrimmon suggests those Maple Leafs fans who remain bitter with Marner should do the same.

Less than 48 hours after Vegas eliminated the high-powered Colorado Avalanche in a surprising four-game sweep in the Western Conference Final last week, the GM was a guest on TSN radio. When the subject of Marner came up, as it always seems to in the Toronto market, McCrimmon candidly let his feelings be known about the entire subject.

“I know it's Toronto. I know it's Mitch Marner. I know it's polarizing, but for me, it's a little bit about, the guy's ex-girlfriend, moving away and doing well,” he said.

“At some point, you’ve got to get over it.”

* * * * 

Signature moments.

That had always been yet another narrative about the Core Four in Toronto, that they could never come through on big stages when it mattered most.

That has changed over the past 16 months, at least for Marner, who’s produced a handful in that span.

Marner’s run started at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025 when he scored in overtime for Team Canada against Team Sweden in the preliminary round, then set up McDavid for a 3-2 overtime win against Team USA in the championship game.

He represented Canada again this past February at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, where he provided more overtime heroics, scoring the winner in a 4-3 victory against Team Czechia in the quarterfinals.

“It's the ‘it' factor, man; Mitch Marner’s got it,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said after the game. “He doesn't disappoint. Sometimes your hair falls out at times, but in the end he never disappoints.”

Shea Theodore saw it firsthand. The Golden Knights defenseman was Marner’s teammate at 4 Nations and the Olympics.

“He's an unbelievable player,” Theodore said. “I think you see what he does with the puck, you see what he does without the puck. 

“He's played in a lot of big games. I think everything I've seen, he's made some really big-time plays, and he's a leader on this team for sure. And it's fun to watch.”

Mark Hunter never doubted Marner had the clutch gene in him. The London GM saw it when Marner was named 2016 Memorial Cup MVP after leading the tournament with 14 points (two goals, 12 assists) for his Ontario Hockey League team.

“He won MVP of the OHL playoffs too,” said Hunter, who spearheaded the Maple Leafs’ selection of Marner at No. 4 in the 2015 NHL Draft as their director of player personnel. “He came through when it mattered. I’m not surprised what he’s doing right now. Look, he needed to get bigger, to fill out, once he got to the NHL. It takes time.

“And now, look at the cast around him. He doesn’t have to be relied upon every night. He’s part of a complete team.”

McCrimmon said Marner has embraced clutch situations and is showing the characteristics of being a difference-maker the Golden Knights expected he’d be.

“Those were cool moments, for sure, things I’ll always cherish, cool memories to have with my wife and my family, just look back at 20 years down the road,” Marner said of his 4 Nations and Olympic heroics. 

“I think to myself that you want to be in those situations. You want to be a guy that people can lean on at a time of desperate measures and desperate situations. So, I'm just happy that I was able to come through on those.”

Have those instances of success at crunch time made him grow as a player, made him more mature and fearless no matter the circumstances?

“I think you always should have confidence in those moments, regardless of the past,” Marner said. “So, it's always a new moment, it's always a new opportunity to show what you're about and what you are. And I think those are the moments I try to always look for, is the new opportunity or the new moment that you can go out and try to grab.”

He did exactly that for Vegas in Game 6 of the second round, opening the scoring at 1:02 of the first period when he turned his back to Anaheim Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal as he brought the puck to his backhand, then popped it between his legs and into the back of the net. The spectacular goal sparked the Golden Knights to a 5-1 victory, eliminating the Ducks in the process.

“Mitch, his energy and enthusiasm is very infectious,” McCrimmon said. “The skill, the talent, the creativity, there may not be another guy in the NHL like him.”

As for Marner’s 22-point drop in production from 2024-25 with Toronto (102) to Vegas (80), McCrimmon scoffs at the notion he had a subpar season. In fact, the GM was quick to point out that not only did Marner have one of the best plus/minuses on the team (plus-17), he was also shifted to center from his normal wing position to fill in for William Karlsson, who missed most of the season for the Golden Knights with a lower-body injury.

With Karlsson healthy and Marner back at wing, they’ve combined with Brett Howden to form one of Vegas’ top lines in the postseason. Howden is tied with teammate Pavel Dorofeyev for the NHL goal-scoring lead with 10.

“I think over the course of the season (Mitch and I) got to play together a little bit here and there,” Howden said. “He was playing center for a little bit. I think over time you get to learn a little bit about the player, their instincts, reading off them, things like that. I think the more we got to play together at the end of the season, and then we got ‘Karly’ back, I think the three of us have been building chemistry. We’re just trying to play off that.”

As such, that success gives Tortorella a much deeper lineup heading into Cup Final. It makes attempts by Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour to create favorable matchups, especially since he holds the last change in the first two games, that much more difficult.

For Tortorella, Marner has been and continues to be one of the biggest catalysts for this run.

“He's one of the best competitors I've coached, as far as just how he goes about it,” Tortorella said. “What people don't understand about him is the little things that he does that people don't see. He does it every day. His practice habits are good. 

“I said it last week, the best compliment I can give him is he's a hockey player. He loves playing hockey. “He’s a very important part to us here.”

* * * * 

During practice Saturday, one special attendee behind the glass was 13-month-old Miles Daniel Marner, the first child of Mitch and wife Stephanie.
The birth of his son admittedly changed Marner. It made him grow as a person and change his priorities.

“When you come home after a game, even if you’re not feeling great after a loss, he changes everything,” Marner said. “He doesn't care if you won or lost. He just cares that Dad’s home.
 
“It definitely alters your perspective on things.”

In an ironic twist, Marner’s first trip to the Stanley Cup Final comes against the Hurricanes, the same team he was almost moved to before the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. With Stephanie in the final weeks of her pregnancy, Marner didn’t want to leave her and used his no-movement clause to veto the deal.

Fifteen months later, he’ll be facing the Hurricanes and their goalie, Frederik Andersen, his friend and former Maple Leafs teammate. They are standing in his way of fulfilling his lifelong dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup.

Asked if he’d gone to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a boy to see hockey’s Holy Grail, Marner replied, “Of course. I think every kid who grew up in Toronto did.

“I got to go to Shawn Thornton's Cup party (in 2011) when he won it with Boston a long time ago. That was a pretty cool moment. And, you know, just remembering seeing the Cup, when I was a young kid, it’s pretty special.”

Which is the same way McCrimmon feels about having Marner on the Golden Knights roster.

In trying to summarize what Marner has brought on and off the ice, McCrimmon recounted asking him during the regular season what he’d done on an off day.

“I found out he’d hosted a couple of our prospects from our American Hockey League team in Henderson at his house,” McCrimmon said. “He did that on his own. Nobody told him to do that. He welcomed them. That tells you what type of person and teammate he is.

“He’s been a welcomed addition to our organization.”

Even more so if Marner can help bring the Cup back to Vegas.