Mitch Marner officially introduced to Golden Knights

From there, Marner joined general manager Kelly McCrimmon for the introductory press conference, stating his excitement on joining the Golden Knights.

“Obviously, the winning regimen they’ve put up five years, or really since they entered the league,” Marner said. “They’ve got such a competitive team every year, they’ve got such good players here. The living arrangements from talking to (Max) Pacioretty and (Ryan Reaves) the past couple weeks, it seemed like everything was a pretty good fit for my wife and I and our new son. The winning aspect really helped with everything as well. Lucky enough it all worked out and this is where we wanted to be.”

While Vegas was one of a few destinations Marner had in mind throughout the process, his agent Darren Ferris brought up the trade plans around the time of last week’s NHL Draft. Excited by the possibility of playing for the Golden Knights, Marner and his camp pushed for the trade that ultimately sent him and his family out west.

“We thought about going to free agency but we didn’t want to lose out on this opportunity,” Marner said.

Despite this, however, Marner and McCrimmon both acknowledged that there is still pressure on the Golden Knights to win another Stanley Cup in their current championship window. McCrimmon, in particular, was emphatic that moving from the pressure-packed environment of Toronto to Vegas does not change anything. He also added what he believed made the trade possible, from Toronto’s point of view.

“It’s our job as managers to make sure our team is good enough to win… (The Leafs) were really victimized by the flat cap,” McCrimmon said.

Marner brings a new layer of excitement to the season ahead for the Golden Knights, who have once again gotten the jump on the rest of the league and made their big move early on.