Mitch Marner’s 'Vitriolic' Maple Leafs Exit Draws Vince Carter Comparison

Hayes said while Marner didn’t quit on the Leafs in the way Carter was perceived to have quit on the Raptors, it was clear he wanted out.

“I’d love to know when (Marner) made up this decision,” Hayes said. “It would appear to me it was last summer, he decided, 'I'm out of here.'

“Maybe it was going to Vegas, and he knew it was going to be available to him. But he didn’t demand out like Vince. He didn’t quit on them… Vince quit.”

While Carter didn't publicly demand a trade, he is supposed to have played badly on purpose to force the front office to trade him away as his value entered a steady decrease.

Fellow analyst Jeff O’Neill echoed the sentiment that Marner’s time in Toronto never sat quite right in terms of his public perception.

“Marner was a fantastic player, he was paid a lot — appropriately paid, "O'Neill said. "But I never understood his PR with the way he just, it seemed like he always had this thing where he was kind of getting screwed somehow and I never really understood that.

“People were always all over him, or he was getting the short end of the stick, or something, I don’t know."

The Golden Knights sent center Nicolas Roy to the Leafs as part of the deal, while Marner immediately signed the largest contract in Golden Knights history.