Breakups are never easy, and former Toronto Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner seems to be learning just that.
Speaking in an extensive interview with TSN’s Mark Masters, Marner spoke about his emotional
“Obviously, the phone call to Auston was pretty tough. It was emotional. He had to get back to Arizona pretty quickly after the season. I tried to get a sit-down with him before, but it didn’t pan out with everything happening. That phone call to him was pretty tough, it was pretty emotional. Obviously, we came in together, we did a lot of things together.”
Marner had spent his whole professional career with the Leafs since being taken fourth overall in the 2015 draft, putting up 741 points in the process. He and Matthews ended up being linemates for much of their nine seasons together, and the partnership seemed like it could have been a career-long one.
“We’ll obviously miss him, he’s a great friend and great teammate. That’s kind of the business side of it that’s tough, but wish him nothing but the best. We’ll just keep it moving,” Matthews had said last week.
But having a close bond with many of his now-former teammates, Matthews wasn’t the only tough goodbye for Marner.
“Saying goodbye to Morgan [Rielly] as well, [John Tavares], [William Nylander], all those guys as we really came in together, grew together, leaned on each other for a lot of things. The market was tough to all of us at times, and we needed to lean on each other. It was tough to call those guys and let them know it was going to happen,” Marner added.
The Leafs head to Vegas on Jan. 15 to face off against Marner and his new Golden Knights teammates, while they’ll host them a little over a week later back in Toronto on Jan. 23.
Lead photo by
John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images