Auston Matthews Signals New Maple Leafs Era After Mitch Marner's Exit

“Yeah. I mean, those are always tough conversations to have,” Matthews said. “Obviously, at the end of the day, you’re teammates, you’re also friends, and he’ll be a friend of all of ours for life. So those are always tough conversations to have, but at the end of the day, you know, he made his decision, and you know, we wish him nothing but the best moving forward, and we’re moving on.”

Marner’s absence leaves a gap on Toronto’s top line, but Matthews said the Leafs are ready thanks to offseason additions.

“Like I said, you know, bringing in some new faces, some new guys that we’re super excited about, can’t really dwell in the past,” Matthews said. “Obviously, like I said, we wish him the best. And he’s going to be a friend for life. But you just got to put your best foot forward.”

A New Era for the Maple Leafs in Toronto

Head coach Craig Berube also addressed Marner’s departure on Wednesday, offering a blunt assessment of what it means for the Maple Leafs.

“We lost a player, a real good player here,” Berube said. “But we added three to our lineup. What excites me is that I don’t have to hear ‘Core Four’ anymore.”

Berube said before arriving at training camp that Toronto would rely on depth rather than trying to replace Marner directly, pointing to the arrivals of Nicolas Roy, Dakota Joshua and Matias Maccelli.

“Listen, he touched all areas of the game for us — penalty kill, power play, five on five. He’s a guy that’s hard to replace. You’re not replacing him,” Berube told The Athletic’s Jonas Siegel. “But we brought in three new players — (Nicolas) Roy, (Dakota) Joshua and (Matias) Maccelli, all sorta different types of players — but I feel like we’re probably a deeper team, bringing in the three guys.”

The Leafs finished first in the Atlantic Division last year before falling to the Florida Panthers in the second round, one season after failing to make it past the first round of the playoffs.