Mitch Marner seen as kindred spirit by Golden Knights star

When forward Mitch Marner takes the ice for the first time with the Vegas Golden Knights, he will be looking to exact some form of vengeance against his former team in the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Drafted fourth overall in the 2015 NHL Draft, Marner was easy to market to the Toronto faithful as a hometown hero who could help end the team’s Stanley Cup drought. However, as the playoff disappointments continued to pile up, frustration began to mount with Marner becoming a focal point of scorn and derision. The fanbase had their latest scapegoat, and they appeared all too happy to watch the player they once hailed as a key piece of their core be shipped out west.

One of Marner’s new teammates in Vegas knows exactly what the star winger went through.

Marner has a clear path to follow in his path towards revenge.

Going two picks before Marner in 2015 to the Buffalo Sabres, forward Jack Eichel has followed a similar career path that ultimately lead him to Vegas.

“Having went through the situation of leaving an organization in the city and having a fresh start in Vegas, I think I can relate, to a point, to some of the things he’s going through,” Eichel said. “I think he’s obviously had his own situation, and however that ended, I’m sure he’s super excited to have a fresh start and be in a place like Vegas, and I know he’ll excel.”

While the circumstances between his and Marner’s situations are somewhat different, Eichel knows how it feels to see a fanbase turn on their one-time franchise savior.

As Buffalo endured a string of lost seasons, fans began to accuse Eichel of not being as advertised, not helped by the rift growing between the forward and the Sabres. When the team did not allow him to get an artificial disk replacement despite multiple recommendations, it proved to be the last straw between the two. Eichel was traded on Nov. 4, 2021, to the Golden Knights, where he has since blossomed into a Stanley Cup champion and one of the NHL’s elite two-way centers.

Eichel has gotten his revenge on his former team with a Cup, but the pain inflicted by the Golden Knights will only be amplified for Toronto if they have to watch Marner hoist the trophy in another jersey.