Mitch Marner will wear No. 93 with Golden Knights

Once a Knight, always a Knight, it seems.

After it was first reported on Monday that Mitch Marner was being sent to the Vegas Golden Knights on a sign-and-trade, the details are now being officially confirmed by both teams.

One thing that jumped out from the Golden Knights’ press release is that Marner will wear No. 93 when he joins Vegas this fall, the same number he famously wore in juniors with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights. Marner originally opted to play as No. 16 with the Toronto Maple Leafs as he was unable to select No. 93 since the franchise has the number retired. Legendary Leaf Doug Gilmour wore No. 93 through his time in Toronto, and the number was raised to the rafters in 2009. Asked why he chose No. 16 at the time, Marner said there wasn’t much significance.

“I didn’t really pick it, to be honest with you. I just had it given,” he told The Athletic in 2017. “I had a couple options and 16 was the best one I liked.”

While Marner was once a celebrated hometown kid with the Toronto Maple Leafs, there’s no denying his long tenure with the team ended on a sour note, as he was booed off the ice in his final game in the blue and white sweater. Now, it looks like he wants to leave his memories of Toronto behind, opting to return to his original 93.

As part of the sign-and-trade, Marner signed an eight-year contract extension through the 2032-33 season, with an average annual value of $12,000,000. Despite having enormous regular season success in Toronto, he was never able to find his playoff form here and is hoping for a fresh start out West. In return, the Maple Leafs received Quebec native Nicolas Roy in a one-for-one exchange. Roy has two years left on his contract with a yearly cap hit of $3 million and has been a 30-40 point player over the past few seasons.

Fans in Toronto will now be keep a close eye out for this year’s schedule release, keen to find out when Marner will play his first game back in Toronto in Vegas’ colours and his new (old) number, which TLN’s Jay Rosehill joked about on X.