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Maple Leafs GM Details Process Leading to Mitch Marner Sign-and-Trade

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Antonio Losada | Last updated Jul 2, 2025 9:18 AM ET

Mitch Marner’s nine-season run with the Toronto Maple Leafs officially ended on Tuesday when the team finalized a sign-and-trade sending him to the Vegas Golden Knights. In return, Toronto acquired center Nicolas Roy.

Marner, 28, had a career-best 102-point season and leaves the Leafs ranked fifth on the franchise’s all-time scoring list with 741 points in 657 regular-season games.

Leafs GM Brad Treliving spoke Tuesday about the organization’s approach to Marner’s contract situation and why the team ultimately executed the trade.

“He’s going to go down as one of the great Leafs, right? The statistics prove it,” Treliving said. “Ultimately, the player has a choice.”

Hear from GM Brad Treliving after the first day of Free Agency

https://t.co/34iJKgc6xh pic.twitter.com/G3SJFHhvfR
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) July 1, 2025

Treliving said the Leafs tried to engage Marner on a new contract before and throughout the season, but were told by Marner’s camp to wait until the season ended.

“I don’t think it’s proper to get into personal discussions that I have with players,” Treliving said. “But certainly we approached Mitch to engage him on a contract.

"As is his right, Mitch and his representative wanted to wait until the year was done. And as it became clear to us that potential (opportunity for negotiating an extension) may not be there, we tried to look at alternatives.”

Treliving did not confirm whether Toronto offered Marner more money than Vegas to stay, nor commented on the speculation about filing a tampering complaint against the Golden Knights.

Marner held a full no-move clause from his previous contract, signed under then-GM Kyle Dubas, giving him control of the process.

The star winger eventually agreed to an eight-year, $96 million deal with Vegas, finalizing the exit via sign-and-trade before free agency opened on July 1, keeping him from reaching the open market.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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