TORONTO — Mitch Marner was walking in an unfamiliar direction.

The former Toronto Maple Leaf was following his Vegas Golden Knights teammates through the bowels of Scotiabank Arena, where he hit his highest highs as an NHL player. But come midafternoon Friday, Marner strode from the entrance for visiting players. Teammates had walked this route before. Their eyes were focused ahead.

As Marner walked, he came upon his first view of the ice. The familiar voice of Leafs public address announcer Mike Ross rang through the building, running through a soundcheck.

Marner briefly turned to his right, catching a glimpse of the ice he once dominated, before refocusing on the path ahead to the “away” dressing room for the first time.

Marner’s return to Toronto after nine seasons as a Maple Leafs star and an acrimonious departure from the organization was one of the biggest stories in the city. It made for an anticipated but also strange day for a former Leaf returning home.

It was 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday, and the Golden Knights were protected from freezing temperatures in Toronto in their plush downtown hotel. They had played the night before in Boston. A handful of players looked tired, heads down, as they passed through their hotel lobby.

Yet when those players looked up, they raised their eyes and shook their heads.

In front of them were over 20 reporters. That was double the number of reporters at the Leafs morning skate, a few blocks east. And it was far more than the number of reporters who usually attend Golden Knights practices.

The reporters were there for Marner.

These were largely the same group of reporters Marner spoke to regularly and often playfully through the first half of his Leafs tenure. The same group of reporters whom Marner addressed far less frequently toward the end of his time in Toronto.

Under an ornate chandelier, Marner cut through the half-circle of reporters without a single word. He took his place behind a Golden Knights backdrop, wearing a black Golden Knights sweatshirt and white slippers, presumably from the well-appointed hotel. Marner’s hair was tussled. Sleep might not have come easily as the Golden Knights’ loss the night before in Boston ended at 9:46 p.m. ET. With a flight time of about two hours to Toronto, Marner would have gotten into the city he once called home well after midnight.

Just 13 hours after his last game ended, Marner was again in front of the cameras.

“I’m obviously not used to staying in a hotel,” Marner said of being in Toronto. “It’s a little odd.”

At first, Marner sounded detached from the emotion that would come that evening.

“My mind is to go play a hockey game and try to win a hockey game,” Marner said when a reporter tried to get a peek inside his mind.

Marner would be facing former teammates and friends he played just eight days earlier in Las Vegas. Ahead of that game, Marner appeared to shoot a puck in the direction of good friend Auston Matthews as both were leaving the ice. Matthews said he didn’t see it happen.

Marner’s Golden Knights beat the Maple Leafs 6-5 in overtime. This time, the spotlight would be even brighter on him. Marner was asked whether any Leafs had reached out to him.

“I haven’t heard anything. I was focusing on Boston last night,” Marner said.

Asked to reflect on his time in Toronto, Marner showed no room for nostalgia.

“I don’t want to look back anymore. If you look back, you’re not focused on what’s in front of you. I feel like I answered that in the summertime. I’m focused on what is going on right now,” Marner said.

It was vintage Marner — well, the Marner who appeared late in his Leafs career — in front of the cameras. Dutiful, but never relaxed. Cheeky, but never overtly expressive.

You wanted to believe all of what Marner said. But as he glanced at the ceiling or answered questions quickly, it felt like he was hiding something else behind the curtain.

Asked whether it would be difficult for him, a kid who grew up a Leafs fan, to hear boos, Marner was resolute.

“Maybe in a way, but not really,” Marner said. “They’re probably going to try to do the thing to get me off my game and try to win their own game. I’m just going to go out there and focus on my thing. I have a lot of great players around me to help me out. I’ve been through a couple of things like this before. I’ll lean on them. I am just going to try to go out there, realize it’s another hockey game, and do my thing.”

But it wasn’t just another hockey game.

To Marner’s credit, his seven-minute media availability — perhaps the most anticipated media availability of the Leafs’ season — went longer than the media availabilities toward the end of his Leafs tenure. In the final few minutes, however, Marner exhaled.

The reality of what the evening might bring appeared to set in. Would the fans who once cheered him on soon turn against him?

“I haven’t thought about it too much,” Marner said of the anticipated in-game tribute video to come. “I’m trying not to.”

The question of whether Marner would get booed in his return was answered quickly.

From the moment he stepped on the ice for warmups, boos picked up throughout Scotiabank Arena. And those boos only increased when he reappeared for the game itself.

Before Marner took the ice for warmups, a fan hung a Leafs jersey in the tunnel for the Golden Knights to see as they walked on the ice. Just before Marner himself came out, Golden Knights winger Keegan Kolesar saw the jersey and ripped it out of the fan’s hand. It fell to the floor.

Posts on X showed the jersey to have the word “Sellout” on the back with Marner’s No. 16.

Keegan Kolesar ripping away a Marner jersey that says “SELLOUT” from a Leafs fan 😭 pic.twitter.com/JDA3FTjEmF

— PuckEmpire (@puckempire) January 24, 2026

During warmups, Marner stuck to his standard routine, only breaking briefly to have a chat with teammate Jeremy Lauzon. Marner flipped a puck up to fans before exiting, as he often would before Leafs games. The only difference this time? The fans waiting had yellow signs celebrating him and were wearing Golden Knights jerseys.

“Odd and weird,” was how Marner described warmups.

Marner would say after the game he saw his mom in the crowd.

“Real happy,” he said.

As was the case during his time as a Leaf, Marner was one of the last players on his team to leave the ice during warmups. Whether it was intentional or merely a coincidence, far more Leafs stayed out late in warmups than usual.

Marner slapped his stick on the ice at the conclusion of the American national anthem. By this point, it was clear the boos would only intensify.

Each time Marner touched the puck through the first period, they did. Fans booed Marner louder than they have any player in recent memory. Many fans then cheered when he finished his shifts.

“I knew it was going to come tonight,” Marner said of the booing. “But the cheer when I came off was pretty funny. I didn’t know what that was. I didn’t see that coming.”

Early on, the only Leaf Marner seemed to engage in conversation with was Jake McCabe. Marner then threw a hit on McCabe on his third shift.

When it came time for Marner’s tribute video in the first period, the boos picked up again. As the tribute video continued, however, cheers drowned out the boos.

“I was trying to just take it in and not get emotional and try to remember we’re still in a hockey game,” Marner said after the game.

Marner slowly skated to centre ice. Almost every Golden Knight and Maple Leaf on the ice tapped their stick in appreciation for Marner. He raised one hand in the air and then tapped his heart. After the game, Marner said he was raising his hand for longtime Leafs radio announcer Joe Bowen, who is set to retire at the end of this season.

“He’s meant a lot to Leafs Nation through his time,” Marner said. “Listening to his calls and being part of his calls was a special feeling.”

Magic Mitch 🪄 https://t.co/ftg5rlme8F pic.twitter.com/wvf7fIOOJH

— NHL (@NHL) January 24, 2026

Once play resumed, the boos continued. Attendance was announced as 19,305, a season high for the Leafs at home.

But Leafs fans in attendance also had little reason to cheer. Sloppy defensive play, a lack of urgency and a goaltender playing his first game in two months contributed to the Leafs’ going down 4-1 in the second period.

The boos continued, but Marner also wasn’t doing much to contribute to them.

Outside of Marner’s stripping the puck from Leafs defenceman Simon Benoit late in the first period in the Leafs zone and nearly creating a scoring chance, Marner did not make a notable impact on the game. He finished without a point in an eventual 6-3 Golden Knights win.

Whether nerves caught up to him throughout the game, perhaps we’ll never know. But the Marner who, at his best, dazzled with his offensive creativity was not the Marner who made his return to Toronto.

As Marner walked off the ice toward the dressing room, he tapped a few Knights employees with his gloves. He looked more relieved than overjoyed. His Golden Knights were leaving Toronto with 2 points. Marner’s old team would head home Friday night still out of a playoff position

The door to the Golden Knights’ dressing room closed after Marner entered. Loud cheers went up. Eventually, one of the team’s win songs, “Mmhmm” by BigXthaPlug, could be heard from outside the dressing room. Then, “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

On one side of Scotiabank Arena, the vibes were high. Multiple Knights fulfilled broadcast media obligations. And then, the growing number of local reporters eager to hear from Marner again waited.

And waited.

As reporters continued waiting for Marner, a cameraman brought a spotlight to the fray. It shone aggressively bright against the black Golden Knights backdrop. In his first media availability as a Knight, newly acquired defenceman Rasmus Andersson approached the media scrum and the light in surprise.

“Whoa,” Andersson bellowed.

Some 20 minutes after the final whistle, Marner finally emerged from the Knights dressing room. He shook the hands of the security guards who stood outside the visitors dressing room and thanked them for their support. Marner then looked at the crowd of reporters and hopped up, trying to see past them.

“I want to see Auston,” Marner said.

A Knights representative told Marner he would have to speak to the media again. As he had done hours earlier, he quickly cut through the assembled reporters. He shouted at the group of Leafs players waiting to catch up with him. Marner promised his former teammates he wouldn’t be long.

And he wasn’t: Marner kept his answers in his second scrum of the day brief but positive. He appeared far happier than hours before.

Relieved?

“Definitely, honestly,” Marner said. “I don’t have to talk about it anymore. I’m sure (former Leafs teammates) are relieved, too, about not having to talk about it anymore.”

Marner finished his media availability with a knowing joke.

“Great to see you,” he quipped. “Enjoy the cold.”

Marner’s responsibilities for the evening were finally finished. He skipped out of the bright light.

Marner continued skipping toward a place he knew very well. He grinned as he approached multiple former teammates waiting for him: McCabe, Max Domi, Morgan Rielly and, of course, Auston Matthews.

Former teammates, but still friends. As Marner hugged each of them, he appeared to hold on tight.