Poor Mitch Marner. He can’t help himself. On the greatest night of his career, with his Vegas Golden Knights putting on a clinic for the hockey ages, on his way to his first Stanley Cup final, poor Marner needed to reference the dark days in Toronto.
You feel for him, really, watching this hugely talented but tortured soul, on his way to where his Maple Leafs never went, that he can’t allow himself to enjoy the celebration, can’t stop being the sour Leaf whose rather brilliant career stopped each season when the playoff games were important.
He never played like he’s playing right now when he was in Toronto, not at playoff time, and the narrative around is that this success is somehow torture for Leafs fans. The narrative is incorrect from my perspective: Any Leafs fan worth their salt has to have watched Marner on this playoff run, leading the Stanley Cup in scoring heading to the final, and fairly and honestly wonder why he didn’t play this way with the Leafs.
Where was this Marner when the Leafs needed him most? In his last season as a Leaf, this apparently tortured soul, scored 102 points becoming the only Toronto winger in the history of the franchise to hit the 100-point mark. Before that, he was a first-team all-star twice. There has been no shortage of terrific Leafs wingers over the years: Frank Mahovlich, Lanny McDonald, Dave Andreychuk — all of them proudly in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Which is where Marner could be one day. But the moments of all this seem lost in internal bitterness. Bitterness that isn’t easily explained or verified.
Why did Marner leave Toronto?
There are still gaps in the story of Marner’s exit out of Toronto, leading to the forced one-sided trade to Vegas. Leafs former general manager Brad Treliving tried to trade Marner to Carolina, but Marner refused to waive his no-trade clause. He was unhappy — he let the world know afterwards and continues to let them know today — but he wasn’t unhappy enough to accept a deal to one of the great teams in hockey in one of the great places in the NHL to live.
He wanted to stay for his ninth shot at the playoffs. He wanted to control his own destiny. He thought last year might be the year. He thought that as he carefully orchestrated his exit out of the city. Where was he going? How did it wind up to be Vegas? Last March, as the Leafs were headed to end of an excellent season and a near-perfect playoffs, Marner travelled with the team for a game in Vegas. So did some family members. There might have been some real estate being looked at, but it was clear to those on the inside who understood that his family was checking out Vegas. This was where they could escape the noise.
That’s what can happen when a player has all the rights. He can play and fulfill his contract, turn down a trade, check out where he wants to live next, execute his departure and leave his hometown team with nothing much to show for the nine years he played here except memories. In his last two absolutely must-win games as a Leaf — Game 5 and Game 7 vs. Florida in last year’s playoffs — Marner didn’t register a point in the two home tennis losses to the Panthers. The score in those games was 6-1, 6-1. Marner had nothing on the scoreboard, but he wasn’t alone. Auston Matthews had nothing. William Nylander had nothing. John Tavares had nothing. The giant stars of the Maple Leafs went quietly after almost knocking off the eventual Stanley Cup champions. It wasn’t just Marner who let the Leafs and the city down in these games. It was all the big guns. It was the Core Four turning out to the O-For. And then Marner left for Vegas, turning down the deal in March that would have brought Mikko Rantanen to the Leafs. That would have been fair value. Instead, there was Nicolas Roy, who was almost invisible playing for Colorado in the series against his former Vegas mates.
How is Marner different in Vegas?
Marner didn’t have a great scoring series against Colorado even if he remains the favourite for the Conn Smythe Trophy. He didn’t need to be great against Colorado. His team was superb. His team won with machine-like precision. And the goaltender most NHL teams wouldn’t touch, Carter Hart, was the MVP of the Western Conference final if there is such a thing. But what we saw was a different Marner — scoring or not, different in his intensity, in the speed with which he played, in the moments that he has turned into his. Environment can do that for players. Vegas isn’t a team as much as it is a hockey cult. They collect talent that other teams produce and mould it appropriately. The Golden Knights Way: Marner, Hart, Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Shea Theodore, Tomas Hertl, Noah Hanifin, Rasmus Andersson, Ivan Barbashev. No team has ever been built this way. Maybe no team will ever be built that way again.
Now this is waiting time for the Golden Knights. Celebration time. Perspective time. Rest time. Look what just happened in so few playoff days? And look what happened before that? They fired their decorated coach, Bruce Cassidy and brought in all the decorations of John Tortorella. They got the splendid William Karlsson back from injury for the final 14 games of the season, which meant Marner could be shifted back to his original position of right wing. They got the early playoff gifts of series vs. Utah and Anaheim, before lining up against the best in hockey. And the beaten-up best, the Avalanche, had almost nothing left being swept away by the overly competitive Golden Knights. What an accomplishment this is already. What a high. The Stanley Cup is right there to win and somehow in all this excitement Marner is talking about the dark days of Toronto, as though he can’t escape them, whatever those days might have been.
