Mitch Marner Cites Two Key Factors in Choosing Golden Knights over Maple Leafs

“We thought about going to free agency, but this is the place we want to be,” Marner said. “We didn’t want to lose that opportunity, and we wanted to join this hockey team.”

Marner said conversations with his wife Stephanie and agent Darren Ferris led to a clear conclusion once Vegas renewed its interest after the NHL draft after initially trying to trade for him at the deadline.

“This was a spot that was very high on my list,” Marner said. “We wanted to come here. I went back to my agent and said, ‘I’m open to doing this if we can find a way to do it.’”

Marner said two main factors drove the decision to choose Vegas. The first was the lifestyle fit.

“The city itself, obviously everyone just thinks of it as the Strip, and there’s so much more to it,” Marner said. “My wife and I like to go out and enjoy ourselves... and we can still do that down at the Strip, or in the Summerlin area.”

The second one was joining a winning team mired in perennial contention.

“You want to be in a place where you want to win,” Marner said. “That’s the whole goal of why we do this. You want to hoist that Stanley Cup, and this team has shown that they can do that.”