Leafs Have Moved On, Someone Else Hasn’t

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We can always depend on Mitch Marner or his agent Darren Ferris to provide those who cover the Toronto Maple Leafs with content during the summer, but for those who wished that the ex-Leaf and his representative would move on, that is not the case. In an interview with Puckpedia on Wednesday, Ferris indicated that Marner is enjoying the new chapter in his life, saying that he has a clear mind and is enjoying playing hockey for Vegas.

Of course, when asked about Marner’s dealings with the Leafs, the interview became a cavalcade of supposed slights that the organization perpetrated on his client, such as not giving him the full package of bonuses when Marner signed his entry-level deal in 2015. 

“He really bled for that team; he was never protected by his organization, in my opinion………(The Leafs) did not want him to have performance bonuses (on his contract). Mitch decided he would help the team out,” Ferris said. “I had some pressures from guys who were working for the London Knights and also working for the Leafs (likely AGM Mark Hunter). Mitch told me ‘Darren, I want to sign this’, and against my wishes, he did.”

Revisionist history is always a beautiful thing, and this is classic. Marner did not decide he would “help the team out”, GM Lou Lamoriello’s policy was to not pay out the full package of bonuses. The issue here is that the following year, when Lamoriello tried to hold the same line with 2016 top pick Auston Matthews, he reportedly was told by Team President Brendan Shanahan to capitulate after nearly a month.

“They promised nobody (would) get them, and they didn’t fulfill that,” Ferris said. “He soon found out that a promise that isn’t in the contract is not a promise. Nobody ever talks about the fact that Mitch did the team a favor.”  

Ferris said there was a campaign of misinformation that made Marner and his family a target in Toronto. After William Nylander’s holdout in 2018, Marner held out all summer of 2019 and into the first day of camp, before signing a six-year, $65 million deal, just under John Tavares $11 million AAV and Auston Matthews $11.634 million salary. 

“There was a lot of misinformation out there, on what transpired to this day. People say he didn’t show up for training camp. Well, he did. He didn’t miss a day of training camp, which just kept spiraling into information that (was) created (and) made him the villain in (Toronto).”Ferris said. “I think the majority of people support him, but there’s always those ones that are fanatic about it. Frankly, as time went on, (it) became the focus of everything.

Scrutinized for every game, him and his family criticized after every loss, receiving threats on social media, which was disturbing. I received plenty of disparaging comments, and you got to remember, Mitch was carjacked in Toronto, and every year the team came up short. He was the one singled out. It’s funny because hockey is a team game. You can’t pinpoint one person. This is a guy that had the most playoff points on the team and who played through a fractured ankle in the Boston series.”

Is he insinuating that the reason that Marner was carjacked is that he was a choke artist and the Leafs came up short? The carjacking was a random act of car thieves wanting his Land Rover, not angry fans taking retribution for his poor playoff performances. Clearly, Ferris and perhaps his client have not moved on and want to rehabilitate his image in Toronto, while all he is doing here is digging a bigger hole for the former #16. 

It is amazing what Ferris has done. Assuming that he did this without the say-so of his client, he has made Marner even more of a pariah a year out from leaving Toronto than he was after the sign-and-trade to the Golden Knights, because he is dredging up all the same revisionism, and it comes after Marner leads the NHL in playoff scoring. Had he taken Toronto on his shoulders as he did in Vegas this spring, none of what has happened the last year would have taken place. 

The Leafs organization has moved on after a disastrous season. They drafted Gavin McKenna, they restocked their forward depth, added a top-pairing defenseman in Darren Raddysh, and a two-time Stanley Cup winner in Sergei Bobrovsky under new GM John Chayka, and are hoping to make the playoffs next season. Clearly, they want to move past the Mitch Marner era in Toronto and chart a new path……but clearly, someone else doesn’t.