It’s been nearly two months since Mitch Marner signed with the Vegas Golden Knights. By now, everyone who cares about hockey knows the story. And over the past 54 days, they’ve all formed opinions about the situation, too.
The most popular narrative, pushed by social media and journalists alike, is that Marner never wanted to stay in Toronto. Marner himself refuted the claims, but that did little to change the minds of the jury in the court of public opinion.
His former Maple Leafs teammates, however, do not share these views. On Friday, at the media at the NHL/NHL Players’ Association European Player Media Tour, William Nylander spoke his mind to the press.
“Not sure where that stuff comes from, but I don’t think he was ever thinking of leaving ahead of time.”
Marner wasn’t ‘thinking of leaving’ Maple Leafs last season, Nylander says
On Saturday’s episode of the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas voiced their opinions on the matter.
“William Nylander made some news,” Friedman began. “He was talking with Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com, and those quotes hit the internet… he said he didn’t understand this idea that Mitch Marner had decided before the season that he was going to leave. Is that accurate?”
“Yeah,” Bukauskas responded. “My question to [Nylander] was, ‘Did you have any sense, leaving the ice after you guys had lost to Florida in Game 7 this past spring, that that was going to be Mitch Marner’s final game in a Toronto uniform?’ And he said no.
“[Nylander] did say that at one point during the year, he asked [Marner] ‘What are you thinking?’” continued Bukauskas. “And Marner said to him, ‘My plan is to stay.’ And even after the season was over, [Nylander] asked him again… Marner said, ‘I want to stay here, but let’s see what happens.’
“So at that point, he was, I think, still hopeful that something was going to get done. But after the season, the tone had changed a little bit, and the door was open to [Marner] going elsewhere. And, of course, he ended up in Vegas,” Bukauskas finished.
However, not every player shares Nylander’s opinion that Mitch Marner intended to re-sign with the Maple Leafs.
“All I can say is this,” Friedman said. “There are other players who feel that when Marner didn’t sign last summer, that the writing was on the wall. My position is this: if they beat Florida in the second round, which they should have done… I just don’t see a way, if they beat Florida, that Mitch Marner doesn’t find a way to re-sign in Toronto, and that the Maple Leafs don’t find a way to re-sign Marner.”
“For what you’re saying, with some other players seeing the writing on the wall, I felt similarly,” Bukauskas agreed. “There were a lot of signs throughout the year that suggested things [in Toronto] were going to change… But you can ‘What If?’ this thing to death. What if [Toronto] beat Florida? What if they go to the Cup Final? It’s a completely different set of circumstances; we’ll never know for sure.
“But, the things that we did see, that we did hear, leading up to [Toronto’s] season coming to an end, and then the fallout between then and the end of June? It felt like things were trending [towards Marner leaving],” Bukauskas finished.
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