For someone who said he wanted to move on and start a new chapter of his career with the Vegas Golden Knights, former Leaf Mitch Marner seems intent on rehashing recent history and relitigating why he left Toronto after nine years. According to Marner in an interview with TSN’s Mark Masters, the main reason for his departure was not money, or escaping the pressure of playing in Toronto, but because he was fearful for the safety of his family.
“It’s a little tough, obviously. We kind of dealt with it for the last two years in a way. The market’s very passionate… they love their team,” Marner said to TSN’s Mark Masters. “I was born and raised there, been a part of Leafs Nation for a long time. But when your family’s safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable.”
First, it has to be said for clarity, fans who doxxed Marner in the wake of the Game 7 loss to Florida in May, or those who would go to a player’s residence to harass, intimidate them, or destroy property, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
However, this play for sympathy and justification being made by Marner and agent Darren Ferris rings hollow. If the issue has been going back years as he and Ferris both stated, why would he not want to extricate himself from the torturous situation and allow Leafs GM Brad Treliving to trade him?
“Mitch went through years of that at the end of every season instead of being able to breathe and reset, and his family were bracing for the storm,” Ferris said on a podcast with John Shannon and Daren Millard. The negativity, the blame, the hate, it was just directed at him and spilled over to other people closest to him. That creates a dangerous environment, and there were even times where police had to be involved. Through it all, Mitch showed incredible strength.”
Treliving reportedly approached the Marner camp about the possibility of a trade last summer after the Leafs first-round loss to Boston. The only team he would agree to waive his no-movement clause to go to was Vegas. Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon would not move defenseman Shea Theodore in exchange, which killed any chances of a deal, but in spite of all the danger and storm clouds he encountered, Marner was unwilling to waive his NMC to go to teams other than the Golden Knights last summer, or at the trade deadline, when the Leafs approached him about going to Carolina in exchange for Mikko Rantanen.
In 2019, Marner’s camp was looking to get paid on par with Auston Matthews and John Tavares after the expiration of his entry-level deal. After the lengthy holdout of William Nylander the previous fall, the Leafs locked him up on a six-year extension for just under $11 million AAV just before training camp. Is it hard to believe this time around, Marner’s camp would be asking for the same compensation and that the Leafs had little interest in paying him more than Nylander and almost as much as Matthews?
The former fourth overall pick is an amazing on-ice talent during the regular season, but he simply could not handle the pressure of performing when it counted or the scrutiny from fans and the media for being a playoff choke artist.
He has been ill-served by his agent and his manipulative father over the balance of his pro career, and that has had a large impact on him being the most unpopular former Leaf in history.
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