Mitch Marner Leaves Behind Incredible Maple Leafs Legacy

Now, after nine seasons with the Leafs, Marner decided on his own terms to leave Toronto in a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights by inking an eight-year deal with an AAV of $12-million.

With Marner leaving Toronto, he leaves behind a legacy filled with success, disappointment, confusion, and heartache. With that in mind, let’s go through some of Marner’s most memorable time periods — for better or worse — as a Leaf. 

2016-2020

“I’m proud to announce,” said then Leafs assistant general manager Mark Hunter,” from the London Knights, Mitch Marner.”

It was only fitting for Marner to have his name called on draft night by the same general manager and vice president from his time in London. Marner was selected 4th overall by the Maple Leafs due to his otherworldly playmaking ability, hockey IQ, and skating ability, highlighted by his skillful edge work, which has emulated a figure skater playing hockey.

At the time, there were whispers that some within the Leafs organization would’ve rather picked Noah Hanifin, who got drafted one pick after Marner, with their first-round selection. But Hunter saw with his own eyes down in London what Marner could become, and he wasn’t wrong.

In his rookie season, Marner finished with 61 points, tied with Nylander for third in rookie scoring. Marner’s rookie-leading 42 assists showed true to his predominant playmaking style, and would be a tell-tale sign for things to come. He finished within the top two in Leafs playoff assists three out of his first four postseasons, per MoneyPuck.com. Many will look back fondly on an era of Marner in the playoffs, for instance, Game 3 in Round 1 against the Bruins in 2019, where Marner made two sacrificial blocks in the dying seconds of the game and saved a potential game-tying goal, to help his team take a 2-1 series lead. The same series where Marner was the driving force for the Leafs’ Game 1 victory, as he scored two of Toronto’s four goals, highlighted by his short-handed penalty shot that completely undressed Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask for a 2-1 lead.

That short-handed penalty shot didn’t just leave a mark on the Bruins, it left a mark on history, as it was Toronto’s first short-handed penalty shot goal in franchise playoff history.

It was an era where Marner’s head coach, Mike Babcock, tried to pressure him into ranking his teammates’ work ethic. It was also a time in Marners career where his father, Paul Marner, became involved in vouching for his son to become captain of the Leafs, while also trying to leverage contract negotiations by threatening the team that his son would play in Europe.

At this point in Marner's career, he had become a consistent 60-point-getter, highlighted by a 94-point season. These were seasons fueled by assists, which helped establish him as one of the league’s best playmakers. It also contributed to establishing one of the game’s greats.

2021-2023

Heading into the 2020-21 season, the Leafs had lost three first-round series, including two Game 7 losses to Boston in back-to-back seasons, and a qualifying round, but 2021 seemed different. The once-young buds weren’t that young anymore, and it was time for them to start making meaningful playoff runs.

After winning the Canadian division in the NHL’s COVID year, the Leafs had the pleasure, at the time, of matching up against their historic rival, the Montreal Canadiens, in the first round. “At the time” should be emphasized because heading into that series, the Leafs were the clear-cut favorites, and it certainly seemed that way, until it didn’t.

Montreal did the unthinkable by coming back from a 3-1 series deficit to win the series in seven games, a year that marked the beginning of Marner becoming Toronto’s scapegoat.

Anybody following that series will remember Marner’s infamous puck-over-glass delay of game penalties, with one of them in Game 6 resulting in a two-man advantage for Montreal, allowing them to go up 2-0 in the game. It also probably didn’t help Marner’s case by finishing that series with zero goals and four assists. It was a series that defined the core four in Toronto, and many blamed it on Marner for his careless penalties and lack of playoff performance. Though his performance in that series wasn’t great, neither was Matthews’ as he had just one goal in that series, coming off his first of three Rocket Richard Trophy seasons which were driven by Marner's playmaking ability, but for many, that didn’t seem to matter; it was Marner who caught most of the blame.

The next two postseasons, Marner would redeem himself, especially in the 2023 playoffs, where he ended up as the team’s leading scorer to help Toronto end a 19-year first-round exit drought against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Though he was a driving force for Toronto advancing to the second round against the Florida Panthers, Marner’s three points in those five games against Florida put him in the spotlight for the blame once more, but this time, he never redeemed himself.

Following their first-round win, the core four would face the Bruins in the first round for the third time since 2018, and they all ended in a familiar way for Toronto: a Game 7 loss.

It was a series that had tons of drama both on and off the ice for the Leafs, as Nylander was mysteriously absent from the Leafs’ lineup for the first three games of the series, with the team providing no information to the media on his status - but it was later revealed that he was dealing with migraines, and Matthews missed games 5 & 6 with a stomach bug.

So, with Nylander and Matthews missing time, the weight to carry the team offensively rested on Marner’s shoulder’s and his three points in seven games made him seem invisible, a term actually used by a Toronto newspaper to describe him at the time of the series.

Following games 1 & 2, where Marner had a plus-minus of -1 with no points, Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun wrote a column on the eve of game 3 titled “SIMMONS: Mitch Marner stars as The Invisible Man in Leafs series vs. Bruins.” It was an article that encapsulated how many felt about Marner at the time, and rightfully so. The Leafs needed him to step up in the absence of two of Toronto’s most highly skilled offensive players, but by the end of the series, he had fewer points in more games than Matthews.

The series was put to rest by Bruins winger David Pastrnak, who scored game 7’s overtime winner, and many blamed the goal on Marner for not tracking Pastrnak well enough, even though it was clearly Leafs defenseman Morgan Reilly who was caught flat-footed on the play.

It was a series that contained one of the more notable visible signs of frustration from the core four, and it came in game 4 of that series.

“Stop F**cking crying bro,” said Nylander to Matthews and Marner on Toronto's bench. Nylander was hot-mic’d for that game, so the clip quickly became a viral sensation, especially for the way Marner threw a tantrum by throwing his gloves on the floor of the bench like an eight-year-old.

 It was a pathetic display from Marner, which only translated off the ice and into the media. 

When asked what it meant to be a Maple Leaf during his 2024 end-of-season media availability, Marner responded with, "It means the world, you know, obviously, we’re looked upon as gods here.”

For such a straightforward question, probably answered by many professional hockey players, Marner probably gave the most eyebrow-raising response of them all. It capped off what has been a solid nine years of never being able to just say the right thing. Even after the occasional lackluster performance, it always seemed difficult for him to admit that either he or his team needed to be better, or just to come out and plainly say “we had a bad game." A simple task that couldn’t be met by someone who wanted to be a captain a few seasons ago. 

2024-2025 

In that same end-of-season media availability as the "gods" comment, Marner did say that staying in Toronto long-term was the goal, but that must have changed sometime throughout the following season. A season that was Marner’s best yet, as he posted his highest point total in a single season (102), which helped him become the fifth highest scoring Maple Leaf in franchise history. A year that included Leafs general manager Brad Treliving, who tried to extend Marner mid-season, and then, when unable to do so, asked Marner to waive his no-trade clause during the trade deadline in an attempt to trade him for then-Carolina Hurricanes forward Mikko Rantanen.

At the time, it was both a bold and correct move for a GM such as Treliving (who has a history of letting high-valued players walk for nothing in free agency) to make. It was his last chance to get significant value for Marner in return, and to acquire Rantanen, who has had a significantly better track record of performing in the playoffs than Marner. This was highlighted by his hat-trick against his former team in the Colorado Avalanche in game 7 to propel the Dallas Stars to advance to the second round of this year’s playoffs. Marner refused to waive his no-trade, which will be one of the reasons why many will resent him as a Leaf.

Marner would play out the remainder of the season in Toronto, where he would finish second in Leafs playoff scoring in the two rounds Toronto played, where Marner caught the brunt of criticism once again for his poor playoff performance. Many pointed to his lack of offensive input through large sums of the seven-game series against the Panthers, as he recorded one shot through games 3, 4, 5 and 6. In game 7 of that series, when the game was out of reach for the Leafs, Marner was booed by a home crowd every time he touched the puck, and had beer thrown at him along with his jerseys, which were among the last few moments of him playing in a Maple Leaf sweater. A rather ironic way for him to end his last game as a Leaf, since the majority of his playing career in Toronto was filled with hate, and probably a big reason for him leaving for a less scrutinized market like Vegas.

Obviously with Marner playing under a contract that was set to expire, he was questioned throughout the regular season on where he saw himself playing next season but would always reply with the same answers such as “I’m just focused on hockey right now." Those answers were almost reminiscent of when John Tavares was playing his last season as a New York Islander, and now both answers have given the same result. Even during his end-of-season media availability this year, Marner wouldn’t give a clear-cut answer on his future in Toronto, but he did hint towards a departure: “I’ve always loved my time in Toronto.” 

Mitch Marner as a Toronto Maple Leaf   

After almost a decade of being a Leaf, Marner will go down as one of the more memorable players to ever wear a Maple Leaf jersey. The question is, in what way will he be memorable to fans? Will it be his elite skill level that left so many in awe throughout each regular season that will make him memorable? What about the stick juggling shift in 2018 against the San Jose Sharks, where Marner pointed back to Leafs equipment manager Bobby Hastings for supplying him with a stick quickly after breaking one, and helping Marner jump back into the play to set up a goal?

Or will Marner be remembered as the hometown kid who was once viewed as one of the saviors of a tortured franchise who couldn't deliver a Cup to his hometown team due to his inability to rise to the occasion of the playoffs, capped off by a temper tantrum on his bench due to years of falling short by throwing his gloves in frustration in a soon-to-be fifth first-round game 7 loss, and third to the Bruins, that many will remember? Well, that’s for the people of his hometown to decide.