When the sixth leading scorer in franchise history leaves under dire circumstances, you have to discuss it in great detail. Welcome to Mitch Marner Week at The Leafs Nation! We’ll have plenty of content, editorials, retrospectives and other items all week, leading up to Marner’s return to the Scotiabank Arena on Friday night when the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Vegas Golden Knights.
Marner is likely to receive a hostile reception on Friday after his relationship with the fan base eroded. The star winger waited until the last possible second to force a trade to the Golden Knights, while a potential deal involving Mikko Rantanen fell through when Marner exercised his no-trade clause. Marner effectively bet on making the playoffs, and it backfired — though he did get a nice payout in the form of an eight-year contract worth $12 million per year with the Golden Knights. After refusing to ask questions about his contract status during his final year with the Maple Leafs while playing the worst two games of his career (Game 5, Game 7 against the Florida Panthers) during the postseason, it’s a unique permutation.
And to be clear, it wasn’t all bad. Marner also provided many bright, colorful memories, and most of his Leafs tenure was blanketed in determined optimism. Marner is an all-world playmaker who has also developed into a strong defensive player, but his immense skills rarely translated into excellence in the play-offs. A decade full of promise was completely stymied during the postseason, and Marner’s refusal to take responsibility for losses never translated well in the world’s largest hockey market.
In the wake of Marner’s terrible performance in Game 7, some fan reactions completely crossed the line. We’re not going to relive the uglier aspects of Marner’s departure. He deserves basic human decency and the right to feel safe in the city of Toronto.
There are ways to voice the collective displeasure of the fanbase, and while there will be varying opinions on Marner’s tenure, which we’ll discuss during our staff roundtable this week, it seems more than fair for the fans to unleash their verbal fury on him. Although Marner and the Golden Knights emerged victorious on Thursday, the upcoming clash between the two teams is the hottest ticket in town, the most anticipated regular season game on the NHL calendar.
We’ll have plenty of content on Marner leading up to Friday’s game. As we cover the Maple Leafs on a daily basis, we need to revisit the sixth-leading scorer in franchise history to date, and perhaps recap what went wrong over the past decade while shining light on the good moments. Marner was a homegrown superstar for the Maple Leafs. Can Marner ever truly come home after a controversial, polarizing decision to leave the Maple Leafs?
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